CHAOS Rowing was born on July 4th of this year. After six months it is time to ask: were we successful in our endeavor?

Yes, we won our first gold, yes, we had decent regatta results, yes, we are financially sound. Yes, we had 6 months of safe rowing without an accident. And we made the news and were on TV.

But to me, last weekend was proof that our club is a success.

We had 6 rowers showing up for a 7 AM practice the Saturday before Christmas. Temperature was 27F (yes, that is below freezing). Winds were calm, but picking up.

We boated a men’s quad and a women’s double (their choice).

Pogeys were swapped. Jackets loaned and borrowed.

After braving the crosswind to the bridge we went down the race course in lightning speed. When we turned around, we knew why: we faced a brutal, ever increasing headwind with gusts up to 16MPH. Rowing into a wall of icy wind, slowing us down, as the chart shows.

We cut the practice short because we were afraid of the wind picking up even more, therefore preventing the 2x from getting back to the dock.

From the bridge to the dock there were white caps with waves breaking over bow and stern.

Back on land, Carol was smiling and said “great workout – that was fun”. Everybody was in good spirits - in spite of temperatures just above freezing.

CHAOS members “must love rowing”, “act as a team”, and “exhibit common sense”: they obviously do!

Happy Holidays from Felix, the figure head president

PS: On Sunday we had perfect conditions with a mixed 2x challenging a quad with 3 guys and one lady.

The regular practice with normal results.

The 2x:

The 4X (with Tim's comment: "you can see on the 3 and 4th pieces when Richard starts to pull hard - split from 2:20 to 2:12 . Maybe he 's the one directing St Nick's training regiment":