Juniors got straight to it at the first race row2k caught this spring, right down to this next group of stake boaters bringing the party--so here's what caught our eye when we were down in Sarasota for the Speed Order and the American Youth Cup.

First Flex Winner

Congrats to this guy: he's the first guy to flex in a row2k gallery this year...and most assuredly not the last.

You can always count on junior men to deliver and this sure didn't take long: it was the first youth race of the day.

And it wasn't just the guys mugging for the camera right out of the gate. Here's one from the opening heat on the women's side:

Clearly, they have been practicing this part of racing down in Miami Beach.

Not for nothing, but the elite athletes racing the Winter Speed Order did have 7 galleries worth of chances in row2k's initial on-water pics earlier in the week to throw the first flex, but had other things on their mind, like earning invites to Olympic Selection Camp.

Speaking of Speed Orders...

How many problems you got?

And here how the traffic looked what it looked like when bow 99 and the other 116 singles and pairs ran through the time trial on Thursday:

Early Bird Gets...the Nap?

With the AYC racing overlapping with the Speed Orders Finals, junior parents were arriving even before the speed order racing started to get good spots, and snag parking...and this pro Crew Mom came fully equipped with an airplane pillow to wait out the non-junior racing:

Bold Maneuver

Brave trick in a single, no question.

Bowman POV

You do see it all from up there.

And it isn't always comfortable; we overheard a bow seat from this 4- race say the following after taking a long look straight down the course after pulling into the starting gates:

"It looks so scary from back here."

Comeback of the Twins series?

We weren't even looking, but definitely spied our first twins of 2024:

Guess we will have to keep the Recap's twin-spotting going for another year.

Have Cowbells...

Will travel!

These two superfans hopped right on a pair of electric scooters to follow this race, taking the cowbell show on the road and putting that mini-megaphone to good use, too.

The Florideagle

Got our wild2k, and bald eagle, fix on this trip.

Look, Ma, Three Oars

When you scull it around in a quad, you quickly wind up with more handles than hands:

Pairs in February?

Sure, why not? In fact, here's five gallery pages of them!

Yep, they played Jim Croce, too

As we noted in the row2k Winter Speed Order report, Sarasota is all about spinning those soft rock hits for the spectators, and now the boat names seem to be following suit.

Probably Shouldn't Encourage This

But, hey, it's the recap, so why not...

New Twist on an Old Hack?

The old Rowing Hack of using tape to ID rigger sets has gone to some wild places in Florida:

Tiara in Three Seat

Is three seat the queen?

Sure, just ask any three seat who's the best--or maybe this was a Happy Birthday 2k.

Hey, You Better Give that Back

Bow Seat Life...

...amirite?

Gonna be a long spring, kids.