The second weekend of April marks the abrupt shift from 'early season' to 'one month until championship season starts.' Yep, the spring season goes by just that fast, so good thing the row2k Recap has you covered.

Here's the stuff we spotted across the heaps of racing this past weekend:

Winter's Not Quite Over Though

Temps in the 30s at the start of Philly's full Saturday of college races made full-length flannel--and this guy--look good.

The Return of The GW Invite

The GW Invite, once a showcase event for the athletic department at the school for its men's and women's varsity teams, was brought back to life by the GW Men's team which that same athletic department relegated to club status after the 2021 season.

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The GW Men turned it into a club-only ACRA event, inviting the men's teams from Bucknell, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Rutgers, and Virginia. They even got some of the local high schools involved, along with the Montclair HS program where GW Club Head Coach Nate Goodman did his junior rowing.

More Signs of Spring: The First Robin, er, 6V

Though seeing a robin is mostly a busted myth about the start of spring nowadays, a 6V remains a sure sign spring is in full swing. To be fair, there a few college squads racing six boats deep this weekend, but with Cal and Washington sticking with one all-freshmen crew in their fleets, this Crimson Crew was definitely the first genuine 6V out of the barn.

... and a Couple Beaster Eggs

This is epic. Love the Redgrave celebration and Pinsent effort face. Deserved winner naturally. ???? https://t.co/eBbKiVPpRP

— Matthew Pinsent (@matthewcpinsent) April 9, 2023

You won't find this particular victory on the row2k results page but probably best not to bet against those two, in any form.

Bests of the Week

Time for our awards for the "Bests of" for this week...and our apologies that we still don't have an 'overhead lobster' to share yet this year, but we do have winners for:

Best Mullet

Best Boat Name

Best Trophy Shot

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Best Regatta Hang

Worth bonus points, btw, when you consider that it takes a good 20 minutes to hike in to this perch at the Occoquan. IFYKYK!

Congrats to all the winners, and please, could someone catch a digger in front of a camera soon?

We Gotta Ask: Who Did It Better?

OR

...and Do You Two Know Each Other?

Click right to see the twins we spotted at Five and Stroke in this crew at the Darrell Winslow Regatta:

Also Twins?

Or are the six-seats just required to row tongues out?

Not Every Shot Is Easy

Shooting at Redwood Shores can get tricky:

The rope used to align the crews has a habit of jumping into the full crew shot on the first few strokes--and in this case, spoil a look at the 2nd and 3rd place Mullets of the Week.

But Some Shots Have All the Angles

Bit of rowing trigonometry in this bow loader:

With an honorable mention for this crew, definitely in the same triangle ballpark.

wild2k Update

Our buddy the eagle, sitting pretty above Lake Carnegie's lightweight racing this weekend:

(but we are worried he may have spotted us)

This Week's Mascot Watch

For those missing Elmo, we did catch the Yeti at YETI...

...and the WVU Mountaineer with an oar

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And, Lastly, More New Rowing Terminology?

Meet the "3 sweat" lead, let's see if it catches on:

Look at that 1000-meter move with Harvard pulling ahead with a three sweat length lead!

Watch Live ?? https://t.co/fIFptuS8qp #GoCrimson | #OneCrimson pic.twitter.com/aZrzb7VkfF

— Harvard Heavyweight Rowing (@HarvardHeavies) April 8, 2023

Audio is worth a listen, too: a quarter scull? And the "Harvard" Bridge? Pretty sure that's not what Matt Damon calls it.