1. What inspired you to go to your first rowing practice; was there anything memorable about it?
When I was in fourth grade, Adam Holland's mom was one of my teachers. In the spring we went on a bike hike from our school to boathouse row, had lunch at the boathouse and got the chance to try out the rowing machines. I think that planted the seed that made me want to try rowing in the 9th grade. That and I couldn't even make the 3V baseball team. My first practice was pretty awful. We did some basic technique on the erg and then our coach had us do a body circuit that he called a "warm up". About halfway through the thirty minute "warm up" I got sick and had to sit out for a couple of minutes. I remember kneeling in the grass thinking how easy it would be to call it a day and not come back for the second practice. I was not a quitter though, so I got back up and finished the workout.
2. Was there a practice, race or other event when you fell in love with the sport, or when you knew you might not be too bad at rowing? When you thought you could make the national team?
Pretty much from the start I knew I loved rowing. It is the lazy man's sport - that is, the goal was to be as efficient as possible and get the most out of every stroke. That concept just made sense to me. I always thought I was pretty good, but I think that is just something I would tell myself to stay motivated. In 2001 I applied to go to a Nations Cup light four camp and ended up going to the light eight camp as we did not send a U23 four that summer. I had the worst erg in the camp by nine or ten seconds and was the first seat race on the second day. After a complete reversal of margin in eights, I figured I had a chance of making the boat.
3. Best race/practice, worst race/practice?
Starting with the worst: The worst race I had was the final of the Varsity Single at Stotesbury in 1997. I was sick for a week and lost my seat in the varsity quad so I spent a week in the single for Stotes until I was back up to speed. The conditions that year were pretty sloppy, the Friday heats were postponed until Saturday morning. Then all of the small boat finals were postponed another two hours to let the wind and chop come down. About 500 meters into the final I caught a wave with my starboard oar and it knocked the our completely out of my hand. I was in the water so quickly I didn't even have time to think about what was happening. I did, however, get back in the boat and finish the race, a full four minutes after the rest of the field.
The worst practices are anything over 60 min on the erg. The best practices are every time I get to take out the single.
The best race would be every time we line up the boats at practice and pull as hard as we can, trying to break the other boat before they break you.
4. Best/Anything you've done in the sport no one knows about?
I am a six time champion of a little known race called the Raritan Valley Rowing Camp Head of the Raritan.
5. Any/Most important advice for young rowers?
Practice hard and race easy. But most of all have fun.
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08/15/2008 4:43:09 AM