Mettam: The sequel

We had nine boats compete in the 2014 Mettam headrace which is actually a fair fleet, although we felt pretty outnumbered by the heaving hoards of UWA athletes parked beside us at the traditional Deep Water Point launch point on the Canning River.

This is how we fared overall, picking up 38 points for our efforts which has still got us clear of ANA but behind the SRRC and UWABC powerhouses.

And here's all the results, as sorted and explained in a long Facebook thread by the Michael Jones: Mettam results

That said, before we even got to Canning, there was the Great Negotiation of Barrack Square. Turns out with a fully laden Wesley trailer, we've got about 10cm leeway to get around the corners of the revised Barrack Square layout. This pic has been sent off to the very accommodating Leighton Broad who are the contractors looking after the square, so they know just how close we are to taking out some of their awe-inspiring industrial orange bollard jungle.

Lou-the-driver seemed pretty relaxed about the whole thing, but then he wasn't watching $200K worth of carbon navigate through the veritable labyrinth.

Over at Canning, as always there weren't enough bolts. Sam promises he's buying some more washers in the next round of spare parts and big shout-out to UWA for lending us some spares so the Three Sisters could go complete with backstays.

This is the map we were all attempting to use to navigate. At least this one appears to be oriented north, although it is scaled to miles:

If I have a quiet day in the office, I might have a crack at redoing it. Anyway...

For those competing the two mile event, it was one of the more memorable start sequences of late - it actually took us longer to get in a numerical line of boats in start order than it did to do the race.

This was my take of the start line:

Start cam at the Mettam 2 mile. Rowing pic.twitter.com/ixU9Tsijo5

— WA Rowing Club (@WARowingClub) April 27, 2014

Sadly I didn't get around to turning on the GPS so I can't give you a nice line of where I went.

Another highlight was some good face-to-face rivalry between the UWA D2X- and WARC - the girls came over to chest-bump Pam in some sort of attempt at intimidation, but were then duly flogged by the girls in red. Well played.

Over in the novice boat, Shaun "Brady's ladies" Brady was in the cox seat of the Francis. Being about twice the size of each athlete in the boat, it's a good thing our hero has a teflon-coated ego. The last heckle heard from an umpire as Shaun steered the Pickle-winning quad through the Mt Henry Bridge sounded an awful lot like:

"Good thing you're making up for your weight with that line."

And that was one of the more savoury of the comments aimed at Shaun's robust stature during the day.

For debut athlete Satori, she reported Shaun kept the crew in good spirits but even his in-suppressible positivism could not take the pain of the final 500m away, and it was a tough battle into a rotten stiff wind to get across the line.

Nick and Sam belted the men's double scull to an easy win, backing up an appropriate amount of banter on the start line.

And for Janelle Austin, we have a sneaking suspicion she may have set something close to a Mettam W1X- record, however as the historical results of the race are no longer accessible, this isn't something we can substantiate. Her time would have got her third in the women's double, and second in the men's single.

At unloading, there was a Dalek. This isn't something we can explain, but here's the proof:

Mettam and the pickles

Once upon a time, back before the Rowing Online Management System, personal grade points, Champion Lakes and before WARC owned any European carbon at all, the Swan River Rowing Club's Mettam headrace had a fairly unusual tradition.

The tradition, for those who remember it, was the awarding of a large jar of pickles to the crew which recorded the slowest time over the three-mile stretch.

The purpose of the large jar of pickles was something I was never sure of - perhaps it was some sort of attempt by the Canning Bridge natives to humiliate those who did not win - a South Of The River haka-equivalent, if you will.

However the years they awarded it, WARC developed its own tradition in relation to those pickles. You see, WARC quite often "won" the jar of pickles: As one of the early headraces of the season, it was the race we encouraged our new athletes who had learned to row during the summer months to attempt.

It didn't end there: For quite a few years, the athletes who won the jar of pickles at the start of the season would then go on to pick up a State Championship at the end.

So for WARC, the Mettam has a special place in the calendar. This is a celebration of our new athletes who are just starting out on their rowing journey.

It is a comfortable distance to give those who haven't competed before to attempt, and gives them the opportunity to get out with the senior athletes and have a go, before we get to the more intense pennant regattas.

To those WARC athletes who did compete in their first race on Sunday (and would have won the pickle jar if the tradition continued): Congratulations! We hope you're nursing your new blisters with a sense of pride.

It would have been so much easier to think "oh, we're not experienced enough", "it's too hard", "it's too far" or any other zillion excuses: The win is in the attempt. Thank you.

(I should point out this was not the only tradition associated with the Mettam: It was also tradition for the old members of WARC to bellyache about how the Mettam should actually be a WARC-hosted headrace given George Mettam himself was a Westies life member, and as far as we know never did don the dark blue of SRRC. George won a Kings Cup or two, back in the days that meant competing in the UK and you can learn about him on page 16 of the Guy Negus History.).

The best #rowing vid you will see today

The following video was made by our own multimedia superstar, Dean Neal at Mayhem Enterprises. In Dean's day job, he's heavily involved in the promotion of motorsport, and as a result is probably the coolest member WARC has. In his downtime, Dean's known to pull on an oar from time to time, and then make videos like this of the experience.

This was made using four GoPro cameras and a chopper drone. Even @MannyTheRower - a prolific contributor to the twitter #rowing community - had some good things to say... Also apparently he covets the Big Al:

@WARowingClub How'd you get those aerial shots? Also, your eight is a beautiful boat.

— Manny (@MannyTheRower) April 23, 2014

Anyway, watch and enjoy - particularly the spectacular tri-angle shots of Jimmy's Boatrace2014-style crustacean impression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn2R3g5foFM

Niks, Nick and Sam.

A few pix from this week:

Ghost of tshirts past

Rowing tshirts have long been a source of hilarity, although more often than not the suggestions border on the unwearable and/or offensive, so much so they run the risk of arrest. But still... hilarious. One of my favourites in WA is from our friends at University boatclub, who wear tshirts saying "Frustrating umpires since 1897". Also accurate.

Anyway, here's a few we've either done, or thought of and discarded:

Guildford to Garrett

First race of the season is over.

We picked up 50 points and are currently sitting in third place, behind Swans and UWABC. It was a comparatively huge fleet of boats from all clubs out on the Bayswater stretch of river - certainly the biggest number of competitors and boats in recent years both for WARC and, it seemed, everyone else.

This is how WARC fared:

However, the raw times don't really do the day justice...

Things started well. Until we discovered 10 bolts were missing from the Maali and backstays were suddenly considered an optional extra.

#rowingproblems first race of season. 10 bolts missing. #whoneedsbackstays #rowing pic.twitter.com/psLcwu35g9

— WA Rowing Club (@WARowingClub) April 12, 2014

For the record, WHEN RIGGING, DON'T TAKE THE FIRST BOLTS YOU FIND. Or we will set Sam and his cranky face on you. And no one needs that.

Then the WB8+ studiously went about setting their oar lengths.

Buuuuut they were the wrong oars. And they all had to be reset for the MD8+.

For the MB8+, it was a big day: Gettin' to row the Big Al, weight down with three GoPros, god knows how many GPS devices and a bunch of stroke coaches.

The Big Al had a little training outing this week, but was most recently seen at the World Cup being rowed by the WA Youth Eight (who, we might add, it would appear completely failed to wash said boat at any point during the SIRR.) At least the name is garnering the sort of attention it should after being used in connection with rowing for nigh on 80 years.

Once on the start line, things got a little kooky:

Rowan photobombed his own pic and tweeted it. Someone (maybe me) had the bowcam out. This was possibly the most recorded race in WARC history.

We suspect Deano was seriously considering following the race with his drone, although how he would achieve that whilst rowing is anyone's guess.

Here is Rowan's STRAVA from the race:

 Perhaps more hilariously, this is Jonesy' heartrate and speed from the race. Now the lads rowed up, and turned around. That bit is obvious... but then 41 minutes into the race, something weird happens. I'm reliably informed our man Jimmy copped a Boatrace 2014 style crab which may even have resulted in damaged carbon. No one is claiming responsibility, but there's no hiding when you're rowing with a boat full of nerds.

Since the girls are nowhere near as nerdy, I didn't want to leave them out so put together this little table, showing this race was one of the best performances out of WARC since we were gifted the Maali in 2006:

I don't have much in the way of pix and stories to tell from the two D eights - they've kept their experience very close to the chest. That said, supercox Nel did mention the last 200m of the MD8+ was EPIC and Mick Duxbury lead a one-man motivational band over the last stretch of the 7km race. Nice.

So, that's it from the G2G. Next race is the Mettam and entries are due this Sunday night.

Top 10 most painful ergs: Now as an infographic

To see the full details, check it out here.

Rowing: More than sport

Was mucking around with some of Deano's drone pix from the Guildford to Garrett Road yesterday. Such a beautiful morning for a paddle. I'd like to say Tolstoy's words came to mind... but I totally had to google them. Days like yesterday are a reminder of why we do what we do: Not for erg tests and blisters... but moments like this.