Wow I'm behind!

Many apologies folks. I'm sure you're just dying for the latest and greatest from New Bedford. It's not that there hasn't been lots of exciting things happening down here - it's that there's been so much I've not gotten to blogging!

Friday we were still trying to figure out our racing situation for the weekend since we were not able to get entries in for the NH Champs Regatta before they filled up (before their deadline, to boot). However, in the end, we were able to set up a great scrimmage with Tom Tiffany's crews from the Newman School and Sarah Jones' crews, Gentle Giant. We all met at 7am up at the CRI boathouse (where I had to explain to our rowers that this is truly an amazing boathouse and not to expect to find others quite like it). We had 2 eights, 2 girls fours, and 2 boys fours. Only 3 of our adult rowers made it up there (Julie Thatcher, Margaret Ishihara, and Peter Hawes!) so we mixed them in with some of the Gentle Giant kids in the 8+.

CRI let us use their wakeless launches one of which is humongous and we could fit all of the parents on it with the coaches. It was a rare treat for us in several ways. For a bunch of novice rowers whose club is less than 6 months old to be able to row the Head of the Charles course a week before the actual regatta is incredible. The generosity of CRI and the equipment they loaned us (including the launches) made it a very fun morning for all of us. The parents were finally able to see what their kids *actually* do and hear the coaches interact with their children. They got to ask questions and see other boathouses along the Charles. We also learned that Margaret, Dylan Maciel, and Justin Medeiros are awesome at coxing! They all navigated a tough river with LOTS of traffic very well and most importantly, very safely.

After the scrimmage the kids, parents, and coaches went to iHop and it was good to just sit and chat with all of them. We have an incredible group of kids and their parents are very happy that they're rowing. Several parents have also commented on how great they think our adult rowers are and love that the adult team is so supportive and inclusive with the juniors. I'll admit - this is the best dynamic I've seen of rowing teams. Perhaps because we're still new and no one has gotten all curmudgeon-like yet, but I hope it stays this way! It makes for a really fun time all around.