Here's what row2k saw this week, both from folks who knew the camera was on them and those that we caught unaware and had no idea that they were about to be Recap-ed--like these folks who were...

Not Having It, Again

Mercer Sprints is the original 'not having it' regatta and is keeping up appearances for sure. Swipe through to see our favorite ugh faces from the Mercer start dock, plus two pretty good contenders from the Cooper and Dexter Lake.

Grokking the Reference

Overheard at the line at Mercer:

- What's your favorite Italian Brainrot?

- Tung tung tung tung sahur!

And this should get you caught up on what that was all about:

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In Sync

Symmetry is a staple of rowing but these are impressive:

And Speaking of Symmetry...

How about some twins? Here's one pair from Port Jefferson:

And the Wisco Lights' twins were easier to spot now that they are both in the stern pair for the Badgers (and they are on to us--we definitely got some seven seat side-eye for taking the photo):

And here's a pair who have just scored themselves a Recap trifecta, making the Twin feature for the third time, this time as frosh at Monmouth:

We've caught them before: as a high school double in this Recap and then erg racing next to each other in this one.

Sequences Galore

This weekend was a good one for photo sequences. Here our favorite shot from each one, with links to where the full set starts so you can click through.

We caught this well-executed spare cox-box battery toss by UNH, from coach to stroke:

This tragic surrendering of sunglasses to the lake that ended like this:

Or maybe not so tragic, from the bow's POV. Then, lastly, this 3-seat creeping in to photo bomb our shot of the stroke:

Pretty sneaky...and she was very pleased with herself, as you can see in the last shot.

Headgear Weather

The hat game in the bow six of this eight was strong:

And complemented by the fact that the coxswain was wearing a regatta-appropriate Knecht Cup hat to boot.

It was just that kind of weekend nearly all over, from Boston...

To Jersey...

Tho the weather didn't seem to bother the five seat of the Dartmouth Light Men's varsity, the one wearing just a tank top in the snow racing clip that made the rounds this week and was the Video of the Day on Monday.

As our favorite comment on the post below notes: "rowing sleeveless during snowfall is diabolical work"...indeed!

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As part of the "UNH needs a battery!" drama, this guy ran all the way to the start with a spare, and arrived with just enough breath left to yell, "Hold the race! Hold the race!"

Turns out the crew already had the spare they caught above from the coach (who drove down with it) but kudos to this team player for hoofing a full 2k plus around the Cooper to make sure the crew had what they needed.

Art But Make it Rowing

row2k spent a long time hoping this coxn would look our way...

so we could recreate the iconic "Fury" film still of Brad Pitt. Oh, well...maybe next time.

And if you don't already follow Art But Make It Sports on Instagram, give it a look.

Don't Forget your...Bow Duck?

This was a new one for us:

Folks sure are getting creative with boat numbers.

Head-Bands or Hair Bands?

Either way, the band game was strong at the Knecht Cup:

And Now, a Cooper Eagle

We weren't going to recap any eagle photos this week, despite having photos from at least three different venues, but this one was unusual--row2k's first-ever Cooper River eagle photo:

We Are All Trained Monkeys

Toward the end of racing, everyone was definitely getting a bit punchy, including one double who kept repeating:

- Watch, if you do a high five, row2k will take your picture every time. Do 20 fist bumps, they take 20 pictures.

Then they challenged the Whitemarsh double to do the same, which, after the appropriate amount of Conshy skepticism, finally relented:

row2k's response: "We're just trained monkeys."

I suppose we're all trained monkeys - you do the fist bump to get a picture, we do a picture to get a fist bump. That is rowing; no one else cares what we are all up to out here on the water, so we might as well have a good time entertaining each other.

And then Recap-ing it, naturally. See you out there for another weekend soon.