The last few weekends, there weren’t enough slings to accommodate all boats that launched.
For a club that is only two years old, launching seven singles, two doubles, a 4+ and a 4x at the same time is quite an achievement.
Of the boats, 3 were doing 5 k race pieces, 2 were training for the upcoming head races and the quad gave two trainees of Coach Claire their first experience of the real thing after spending hours and hours on her simulator. Every rower on the water focused on something he or she wanted to become better at.
How did we get to this point?
The President’s answer (instead of a review of CHaOS 2nd year):
Long time coming: lost a rower, found a miracle
6 months after her birth, Becka’s daughter Maya finally was allowed to leave the Intensive Care Unit and go home to a proud mother and father. After several return visits to the hospital the great news was: Maya drinks – 80 ML– by herself. We all consider that a miracle.
Becka won’t be able to row with us for a while. We are holding a seat open for you – and promise there will be one in 15 years (or so) for Maya, too.
Valor games: they needed a certain amount of CHaOS
In June, our friend and supporter Ashley Thomas from BridgeIISport again organized the Valor Games.
Our cox Kate was in charge of the indoor rowing event. Nervous, she was, whether she would find enough volunteers to accomodate all the veterans who wanted to compete in rowing.
CHaOS did not let her down. Nine of our members helped the motivated and enthusiastic athletes succeed.
Thank you very much to all of you for contributing your time!!!
PS: As the foreigner and a stranger to all things military, I couldn’t help but noticing that a Jew, a Muslim, representatives of all Christian denominations, and a few atheists coming from Scotland, Australia, Switzerland, Turkey, New York and other strange places all joined to help US veterans of foreign wars. Utter CHaOS.
An almost accident
2 boats with 3 old men pushing the boundaries of the traffic pattern had an encounter on the lake. Oars were crossed. One rower went for a swim. Nobody got hurt. Only a small crack in the splash-board of one boat.
The incident was analyzed. Report filed.
The other good news: the number of scullers wearing PFDs more than doubled in the aftermath.
Safety first.
We are not done yet – but getting there
With the new 4+ we closed the last gap in our fleet (see separate post).
With the new trailer – our very own trailer – we gained the independence to go wherever we want whenever we want (see separate post).
Our rowers went to the World Master Regatta in Bled and won medals at the Master Nationals in Oak Ridge.
Let’s hope the next 12 months will be as successful and safe as the last 24!
PS: We ordered more slings.