The guys don't just heart their moms, they love them so much they planned ahead, brought these shirts with them in the boat, and then threw them on at the finish line...after winning, naturally. (we caught the whole costume change starting here)

And they weren't the only kids we saw being sure not to forget the crew moms in their lives:

But while some moms got signs at the finish, some moms got to work at the start:

And some folks actually just love the Jr 4:

Super Socks

Not all socks wear capes:

...but when yours do, you are super-powered for sure--and she was having fun showing these socks off to her boatmates.

Maybe We Have Seen it All...

Things we spotted this week included:

- a junior single sculler yelling '%$@# YOU!' at a buoy she clipped
- a bow-loaded coxswain paddling with his hands to adjust his point
- and even a guy hocking counterfeit Dad Vail t-shirts out of a duffle bag to folks in the grand stand at the Cooper

But this pic tops all of that:

Now, we do see all kinds of stuff at venues that are also public parks, but this tableaux was a regatta first, no question.

Wait Til You See The Next Photo

This weekend was another good one for photo sequences, like this kid going from the usual pre-race mugging for the camera here:

To absolutely hauling on it:

And then with the fist-bump-and-boom between the the Drexel 2V stroke and coxswain that started in this shot::

We caught both the bump and the boom, for a full, suitable for gif-ing set.

And the two photos after this "did we win" moment with the Temple six-man told a full story at the end of the tight men's eight final:

There's the one where he realizes they were #1...and then his full-on, "put me on the cover of the row2k report" celebration.

Go Phils!

When this stroke seat loaned his hat to the long-haired bowman, it came with a warning: 'Do not lose that hat. It is my favorite hat.'

Bow man's reply: 'Don't stop if you see it float past during the race.'

The hat did make it back to the starting line for the final, so the bow man held up his end of the bargain that far, at least.

The Little Speedboat That Could

Crews at the NIRC start line had an un-invited guest:

The tiny model boat floated around all morning, and didn't really move even when a few crews hit it. Eventually the wind blew it down to the 500 and one of the refs ended up with a new toy at the end of the day.

Eagle Two-Fers this Week

We managed to catch two Mercer eagles at once this go-round:

Bad Light, But Great Pic

Shooting into the sun at many popular venues can be tough, but backlighting is not always bad:

"Where's Our Movie?"

There's been some hype for the upcoming documentary about the Drexel-LaSalle rivalry, to include a pre-Vails feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer, so of course when the Temple men beat them both to win the Vails, they started good-naturedly chanting, "Where's our movie?" on the medals dock.

Hey, can't hurt to ask, right?

Who Did it Better?

Celebrating the win with in-boat dabs?

Or balancing the boat while the coxswain 'surfed'?

Blades Buried?

The 'blades buried' call didn't last long on this start:

Last One Vibes

There was a fair amount of year-end talk at the starting line, including amongst this crew from Springside Chestnut Hill...

...with rowers telling each other what an honor it had been to row together, and expressing their pride at getting as far as they had--taking it all in along the way, very cool.

Regatta Futon Hack

This Penn State rower had this pretty sweet seat hack to show us:

She rigged up her mini-futon with a set of back pack straps, so it was super easy to carry around the venue to wherever she planned to lounge next in between races.

Save of the Week?

Only thing better than not flipping in your time trial?

Saving it, of course, and still making the semis like these guys did, whew.

Tho this save might be a close second:

So what if half your ice cream cone is on the ground (and your shirt)? Can't let that stop you!

Big weekend coming up, with the Stotesbury Cup, the ACRA Championship, and lots of IRA and NCAA bids up for the winning.

You can track the Automatic Qualifiers all weekend here for the NCAA and here for the IRA--and of course, keep checking row2k for photos, live streams and results all weekend long.