As we head into racing season, row2k caught up with the directors of a few early spring regattas to hear how 2022 might be shaping up differently as they got their venues, staffs, and volunteers ready to run events in this third spring of the global pandemic.

The three Regatta Directors we contacted have "back to normal" 2022 events planned, but found themselves finalizing their events during the Omicron surge. We asked each of them to tell us about their biggest challenges, and what they've learned here in 2022.

San Diego Crew Classic
In 2020, Bobbie Smith, Director of "The Rowing Season Starts Here" regatta out in San Diego, had to cancel the Crew Classic altogether as the country went into lockdown, and then uncertainty and state restrictions limited the 2021 edition to a virtual format.

The biggest challenge to bringing folks back to Mission Bay in 2022? "Omicron," says Smith. "Having a new variant that everyone was concerned about definitely put the brakes on the regatta for a bit. We had over 100 registrations occur in the last three days before our early registration deadline. It was both unnerving and amazing to see. Also, tracking the requirements for Covid safety concerns. They have been constantly changing in the last month and even rules we sent out early in the month for our brunch have changed since we sent them out. It's a constantly changing landscape."

"People are worried about travel still," Smith has learned, "and most aren't willing to register as far out as they have in years past. There's a lot of caution and cautious optimism as well. Personally, we're hoping people are even more excited about next year and no Covid scares like Omicron that happened this year, because it will be our 50th San Diego Crew Classic."

Flick/Horvat Regattas
In Philadelphia, Leslie Pfeil and the Philadelphia Scholastic Rowing Association only lost 2020 to COVID, managing to pull off a smaller and more local version of "the Flicks" in 2021. Already, she says, 2022 is "very different as more people are vaccinated and cases are declining."

"First, the biggest challenge this year is bringing back spectators . We were not allowed them last year and so it has been two years since we have had them, and many of the parents-most of the parents-are new. The only ones who were around in 2019 were freshmen parents. So getting everyone informed of what the procedures are for entering the venue, parking, setting up team tents, what they can and cannot do, etc., has been challenging. We started from scratch with our parent listserv and even getting contacts for that list has been difficult."

Pfeil, the President of the PSRA, also highlighted the turnover in coaches: "The PSRA has about 70 plus member teams and 15 of these teams have new coaches who have never attended one of our regattas and need help learning the ropes."

"Third," she says, "recruiting volunteers has been a big challenge. The Great Resignation has affected volunteers and because most parents are new to our regattas many do not know how much we depend on volunteer help. Last year we minimized the number of volunteers we used because of COVID but now that we have spectators back there are more tasks and the need for volunteers. We also lost some volunteers over the past two years; they moved on during the two-year break."

What Pfiel has learned, and can pass on, is that these three challenges in combination make 2022 a bit different: "Just getting people-spectators and participants-up to speed about what actually happens at a regatta and what their role should be. Be advised, for many people it has been two years since they have participated in a regatta and for many more it will be a totally new experience."

California Challenge Cup
AJ Brooks, the Head Coach at UC Irvine, actually got to run his regatta in 2020: that February 29th, just weeks before the lockdowns, the California Challenge Cup was among the last pre-COVID rowing events, but then was canceled altogether in 2021 under California's then-continuing pandemic restrictions.

For that 2020 regatta, Brooks had just invigorated the race format, introducing a round robin of shorter races to this UC invitational event which the late Duvall Hecht started in 2016. The changes allowed Brooks to shift racing to the spectator-friendly beachfront of Newport Harbor's Lido Reach, attracting the sponsors who now pay for for the regatta's six trophies and cover all the entry fees, but the move also meant that 2022 was just the second time through the new site's logistical challenges.

The 2022 edition, in its new home, was slated for the first weekend of March, which meant that the mid-winter Omicron surge was nearly a show-stopper for Brooks:

"I didn't even start planning the regatta till February, with the middle of Omicron, January shutdown. We were remote school for the first two weeks of the quarter. So when we got the green light that outdoor activities were permitted, we're like okay: full steam ahead, let's start planning. A lot of it was Brandin Grams, who runs The Rowing Channel; he was extremely helpful in some of the logistics and he ran the live stream and the timing. We pretty much put that entire regatta together in about six weeks."

In that short window, Brooks learned that a key to success is "making sure you have the right people in place to help facilitate the regatta, and to give people some ownership over different products." For 2022, that included bringing in Grams and the TRC live stream, reengaging with his group of sponsors, and entrusting UC Irvine's rowers with promoting the regatta on campus. The team-who, as club athletes, also help to run the event-were able to bring over 600 spectators to the beach during the racing.

Brooks also credited the announcing talent they were able to add to the livestream, which featured Bob Ernst and Jim Jorgenson.

"Full announcing is also another key for running a regatta. When you have good announcers it makes such a world of a difference. For all these parents who don't know about rowing? It keeps them engaged enough to stick around for the racing."

That would certainly be the hope for all the rowers-and Regatta Directors-out there in 2022: getting to "stick around for the racing" now that COVID and the restrictions that brought rowing to a halt and impacted regattas big and small for the better part of two years now seem to be behind us.