1 - Row, Row, Row a boat or Why do you like rowing?

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream

Merrily merrily, merrily, merrily

Life is but a dream

I didn't always like rowing, but I now respect it for what it is and means to me.

During high school (don't ask what high school because that could open a can of worms that needs to be kept shut), I thought it was a pastime and sport that involved people from "the seen", the social elite that are the BMW driving, polo pony, urban cowboy types that were responsible for making my days away from home, pretty ordinary and not contain many fond memories.

They were the social pinnacle that I didn't want to be a part of.

I don't mean jumping in some old boat, bailing it out and getting into it, I mean the pencil-like river weapons that glide in silence.

What hooked me was the passion of one person and his infection towards the sport. I don't remember what he said in assembly one day but I decided to give it a try. This person was Simon Newcomb, in his day one of the finest rowers that the world has known.

The social hierarchy above me in the school pushed me back out and my coaches didn't want to light the fire but the few memories of an eight bubbling along the river in anger, the power as we pulled against the water and the feeling of right when it worked. That ignited respect and memories, then I walked away for 10 years. This was mainly to forget a few things, mainly high school.

I revisited the memory on a river in Coastal central QLD, above the weir that crocodiles were not seen (so I was told). it was on a few mornings where id found my feet and took solace in the following simple truths.

1. if you go out, you have to bring it back so know your limits

2. you will fall in, so laugh about it now and get on with it.

3. the blisters you have on your hands from high school were honest and a sign of hard work. keep them and remember them

4. the pain from hard work is honest and keeps it real for the moment

5. always have a towel

there were also and still are the moments of silence on the water where it is just you and for a moment you can hear the energy of the world. it's hard to talk about one thing but you will know that moment.

For the next 10 years, I was an on and off again rower. Joining local clubs and meeting the same members of "the seen" and knowing that I didn't (and don't) want to be a part of them. Rowing was the thing that lit the fire to become involved in my current day to day career so I guess I have good reasons to be where I am.

I still remember the feeling of a hard morning on the river, and watching in silence as the sun rises above the riverbank, a cow eating grass and a feeling of freedom and something looking at the greater good.

I still hear the message that Simon tried to get others to listen to, and I can see what he means. Rowing does not belong to the elite few. It belongs to those who want to try and give it a damn good try. I see lots of the sport I enjoy tied up in the strings of the elite few. Perhaps this just my view of where I've come from as I look back.

So I guess after 23 years of on and off rowing. it's time for a new part of the story.

and that's a story of another day.

D