If you get a fast start you see your opponents coming up on you. If you are making up ground you are rowing in their chop and you cannot see if your efforts are paying off in making up ground. Sometimes you are side by side across from each other during most or all the race.
We had a coxswain who would call out the seats in the boat that we were passing “I have their stroke, give me seven, give me seven”. That makes for a strong race because you are challenging them to row harder, but usually when you pass them - they fold. It is rough to see them break discipline - but in victory we also did not row as hard as if they were up to the challenge.
One race I will always remember a boat was ahead of us all the race, but we were boat to boat the entire time, until the last seconds of the race when we surged ahead and won.
I could feel their pain! The poor dumb bastard were ahead for 99.999% of the race except for the three seconds that it counted when we passed the finish line!
Good times, good times.
And Crew women are tall and develop great legs and asses! And if you like tiny gals, the coxswains are cute little bossy ones! One had a twin, who I had a lot of classes with..... drool.....
I’ll bet.
I like tall gals with nice legs, so yeah, rowers and swimmers for me. If they don’t mind short guys then it works out great!
Oh, funny story. A friend set me up on this blind date once and I told him to make sure that she knows what to expect. So she told her that I played volleyball, as a blocker. Which is true...
Oh she was not happy! She thought I’d be a tall guy, and was surprised that I was so tiny. I told her well you run, you build up everything in the legs. I’m not very heavy so it means I can jump really high. I had the same reach as the tall guys and could move around faster so I stayed on the team.
Even the coach was surprised. When she first started she had me assigned to set, since usually it’s the short guys who set. I told her, well, you probably don’t want me there. You want me digging or blocking. Eventually she got me up at the net, but it took some convincing!
With the new rules now, I’d have been much more of an asset. Prior, everyone had to play either up front or back. Now I could just stay back all the time and dig.