2 - Water everywhere and I don’t have a boat to row

As mentioned earlier I’ve been rowing on and off for 20 years. All of this rowing has been in the normal rowing scull or multi-seat boat. This said I've become accustomed to my own company and prefer solo sculling. These boats are fun but unless you’re a member of a club they are a number of things.

1. expensive to buy new

2. variable to buy 2nd hand

3. hard to find in a heavyweight category

4. as a member of a club, it’s hard to maintain a selfish, unchanging set up on a boat

5. Not your seat, not your oars

When I’ve been in a club, I've been able to row and enjoy it but the boats have never been mine, never able to be fully set up for me, never long enough to fit me and when I’ve made adjustments the shell I’ve settled with, the shell has been changed to be shorter, lower and adjusted to fit someone that’s well below my 6’ 2” frame.

I’ve nothing against clubs, I enjoy the time spent in them and the community within them. I just am an outlier and I'm normally too tall or too heavy for a majority of the community shells.

it’s now time to hunt for my own shell and make it mine.

The other reason that my current membership to a rowing club has been allowed to lapse is that my work-life balance was allowed to fall. I hope this will change in the coming future but it has been rubbish and I've not felt good for a while. This project will let me get away from a few things for a while, re connect with what's really valuable and hopefully let me get back into the world and connect with people that matter.

If you're taking the time to read this, don't forget that you matter too. Don't let the black dog get you down. Take a walk, have a talk, get in your boat, buy that loud shirt and make a statement.

(if you want a loud shirt that makes a statement and a difference, buy a trade mutt shirt).

be good,

D