Winter Training has begun!!

Well it's official - the winter training season is upon us! This morning we brought over another erg (thanks trivia night proceeds!) and started our first adult practice. We had a few returning rowers and one brand "newbie" that had surprisingly great form right off the bat. Ken Clark was our fearless leader and already warned us of what sort of 'fun' he had planned for us.

This afternoon the youth program kicks off 4-6, and then on Tuesday we start the adult evening group. It was going to run 7:15-9 but we've moved it up to 6:15 to start right after the kids practice. For any of you interested, you can sign up HERE and here's the schedule:

Adult AM:

M, W, Th 5:30-7am

Adult PM:

T, Th, F 6:15-8pm

Youth:
M, T, Th, F 4-6pm

Turkeeeeeeyyyyy

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and also delicious Thanksgiving with loved ones. I got to see family I hadn't seen in years and man....my aunt is a PRO at making Thanksgiving dinner! The only problem? There were 25 people so no leftovers!!

Lest you think the triptophane took hold, we've been moving ergs around in preparation of Monday when Winter Training begins!! Yes, at 5:30am, we kick off a 4 month season of indoor fun. For those of you that aren't so keen on 5:30 am, we have an evening group as well. It's scheduled for 7:15-9pm but we may move that up to 6:15-8pm if that works for those signed up. For the youth, they'll be practicing 4-6 every weekday but Wednesday when they focus on academics.

Enjoy your weekend and gobble up those leftovers!

Trivia Throwdown SUCCESS!!

We had a great night with some fantastic people coming out to support NBCR. Jay and John at Rose Alley Ale House helped us put on a great event, Mike from Cork came to support us and helped us get things situated. The trivia DJ was awesome and Larissa McLaughlin did an incredible job putting it all together.

Many thanks to the teams that came to play and to the staff at Rose Alley who took great care of us. Special thanks to those that weren't able to make it, but still donated money or advertised for us anyway. We were able to spread the word about what we're doing and what our mission is and we even got a few recruits! And to top it all off...we raised $600!!!!! That includes some t-shirt sales, but that's also after we paid out the first place prize of $150 and paid the DJ. With that money, we can purchase one used ergometer to use for winter training (which starts on Monday). We're borrowing three machines thanks to the generosity of Rachel Eisenhaure, Anne Eisenmenger & Pat Lester, and Betts & Wisner Murray. That will bring our total up to 5 machines with more to come!

So, all in all we had a very successful night of fun and laughs and you can plan on us repeating. Come January, we're going to hold Trivia Throwdown monthly - plan for it now and start studying!!!

Trivia Throwdown has arrived!

That's right folks, the time has come. The time to test your wits against friends and foes alike all in the name of support for New Bedford Community Rowing! We'll be kicking off the Throwdown tonight at Rose Alley Ale House at 6/6:30 pm and it'll go until about 8:30/9pm. All are welcome, but teams are filling fast.

The icing on the cake is that there's live music afterward! you can stick around and hash out all the "I KNEW that one!" questions while you eat, drink, and be merry listening to live music by Jeff Gobush and Thom Hiller.

So come on down with your team and compete for prizes at the Trivia Throwdown!!

Thank You Crapo Foundation!!

Great news everyone! Laurie Bullard submitted a grant proposal on behalf of New Bedford Community Rowing to the Crapo Foundation. It's a local charity that has been around since the 1950's. The great news is that the Crapo Foundation has approved the proposal!! This is a huge boost to our already successful start and will make it much easier to get through the winter. Thank you to the Crapo Foundation as well as to Laurie Bullard for believing in us!!!

Art Opening including board member Laurie Bullard!

Opening Reception for 2nd Anniversary Exhibit!

Reception with Wine Tasting

by Travessia Urban Winery

11/27/2010 6:00 - 9:00 pm

gallery hours:

Mon., Tues., Thurs., & Fri.

12:00 noon - 5:00 pm

or by appointment

closed on Wed., & Sun.

AHA Night

Thursday, December 9, 2010

5:00 - 9:00 pm

free & open to the public

Laurie Bullard, one of our board members, will be included in this exhibit so I encourage you all to attend and support the arts. Just like athletics are important to having a well balanced and well rounded life, so are the arts. This area is rich with visual arts and music of all types. Please take advantage of what New Bedford has to offer because I can assure you - not all places are lucky enough to have these opportunities!

College Night = a SUCCESS!

We had 5 of our senior/junior rowers in attendance tonight with several parents along for the ride. Maura and Gail held a great discussion about all the many facets to preparing for college. In one parent's quote "this is so overwhelming" and NBCR is so glad that they came down to help make sense of it all. If any of you weren't able to make it tonight come talk to me or Coach Blood to get some information.

Trailers are fun

Yes, it can be a little nerve racking to drive a long trailer carrying everything the club owns on it, but it was actually really fun! Needless to say, Paul did a great job repairing our yellow 8 and now all of our equipment is safely up at CRI in Brighton for the winter. Thanks CRI!!

Our Winter Training will kick off on November 29th and be held at the New Bedford YMCA. You can register on our website. Sign up now! Training for both youth and adults is being offered. If you haven't rowed before but want to try, this is the PERFECT time to start!

Our Sisters' School

After meeting with Hillary Parker at Our Sisters' School (a private independent middle school in New Bedford), we've decided to team up on a volunteer basis. Coach Briana Blood, with a little help from me, will be volunteering one day a week for at least 12 weeks to work with the girls that go to school there. They opened in 2008 and have a total of 53 students in 4 grades. I got a tour today and they're doing some great things that New Bedford Community Rowing would be happy to be a part of.

Hopefully we'll also set up something similar with Nativity Prep to work with the boys as well. They've been open a bit longer (10 years) but it's also a private middle school. As you all know, NBCR relies heavily on fundraising and volunteers, and so do these schools. We know all too well how important local support is so we're trying to do our part in giving back to the wonderful community of New Bedford. If you don't volunteer in your community, go out and find a cause to support! There are so many in need!

Great Stuff!!

Okay so who really likes Mondays, right? Normally I wouldn't but today has been a great one so far.

We're at about 99% completion with the YMCA Winter Training Deal and it's going to start right after Thanksgiving. We'll be training indoors for about 4 months, and our main goal will be C.R.A.S.H. B's in February (indoor race).

I just spoke with Ellen Minzner up in Lawrence about the programs she's running up there (Greater Lawrence Rowing). (she's a fantastic rower with quite an elite level history of success, not to mention the coaching she's done). They're hopefully going to scrimmage with us and join up in other ways as they're doing the same sort of community outreach as New Bedford. Ellen also used to be my coach at CRI so any chance to team up with her is exciting for me, personally :)

Teams for our Trivia Throwdown (tuesday 23rd @ 6pm @ Rose Alley) are forming now and there seem to be quite a number of people coming! The trash talking has already begun, so it truly will be a 'throwdown'... muahahaaaaa >: )

College Night Thursday 11/18 @ 6:30!!

We're having a few women come and talk to our kids and parents about college, rowing, etc. We'll be meeting at 6:30 on Thursday the 18th at the Quest Center building (1213 Purchase Street) upstairs in the 3rd floor conference room. All high school rowers and their parents are encouraged to go, no matter what grade you're in.

Also, one of our rowers -Andrew- is helping me to organize a trip out to UMass Amherst so the kids can talk to some coaches and watch a college rowing practice. The UMass women's team is "varsity" and thus governed by NCAA rules, but the men's team is club, so the boys can hopefully get more involved in the practice (should Tony Cronin decide our kids get to play in his sandbox!). This will be a great trip for all of the kids and it'll be fun for all of us. Hopefully we'll make the trip on the 20th of this month. GO UMass!!

Happy Friday everyone!

I hope you all hugged a vet yesterday to thank them for all that they do for us. Thanks vets!!

So our boats and all the other equipment is safely hanging out at Peinert Boatworks in Mattapoisett, and today around 5pm we're going to move our yellow 8 into Paul's shop for a bit of repair work. After Paul has worked his magic, we'll probably need a few people again next week to put the boat back on the trailer. Then, yours-truly gets to drive a loaded up trailer up to Brighton so that all of our stuff can get tucked away at CRI for the winter. Thanks, CRI!

All packed up...

We had a great group of rowers come out last night to pack up our club. It was cold, dark, and rainy but we had some die-hards that worked really really hard. We got all of the boats loaded, the launches, even the racks that the boats were sitting on!

Our "club" will reside at CRI for the winter but our training never stops. My apologies on not having details just yet but trust me we're working on it. Enjoy the peace while you can get it!

I hope to see all of you at our Trivia Throwdown on Tuesday November 23rd at Rose Alley!!

Time to Pack!

The day has finally come, folks. Yes we need to officially pack up all of our boats and equipment and store it for the winter. Having just moved from California, this is new for me. I'm used to rowing all year 'round! Although now we won't have to worry about lack of daylight and if it's raining or not. We'll also get to work super hard and become very fit.

So, anyone that feels like coming on down around 3:30 or 4:00 this afternoon, we'll be a Popes Island and need LOTS of helping hands. It should go pretty quickly since a lot of the work is already done. We just need multiple bodies for the heavy lifting. Oh yeah - and the tall folks to help put boats on the tippy-top of the trailer. Good thing our youth boys are so tall!

Ergs and Boats, Ergs and Boats...

A few things happening here with equipment. We've derigged all of our 8's and our 4 and pulled the launches out of the water. Tomorrow we'll be loading everything up onto the trailer and it'll live up at CRI for the winter. Sad, but just moving on to the next phase! (feel free to come on down tomorrow around 3:30/4pm to help load!)

Which brings us to winter training. Still waiting to hear from the YMCA but we've started acquiring a few ergs to set us up for winter training. So far we've got 5 and hope to make it to 10. I love inflicting pain on larger groups!! Muahahahaaaa >: )

Also, a close friend of mine is selling her racing single. It's not like the zephyrs we've been loaned by Peinert Boat Works - this is much skinnier! You really gotta know what you're doing to row this little guy, but the owner (original) has taken extremely good care of it. Here are a few photos but there are more if you're interested. Email me at carolyn@communityrowing.org if you're interested in more information on this single:

2001 Vespoli Matrix 24 1x. (115-145lbs, 24'6"). was not rowed until Summer of 2002. white hull w/green striping, wing rigger. Newly re- wired for NK speedcoach. Excellent condition- Orginal owner, well maintained and always stored indoors. Speedy little boat w/ a lot of racing years left in it. Well loved and sad to be letting it go. Pictures available upon request and able to be seen at Community Rowing, Inc Boston.
Asking $3600

Wine & Beer anyone?

As if Trivia wasn't enough to keep us busy, we've got another fun social outing for you. On Wednesday December 1st, New Bedford Community Rowing will be hosting a Wine and Beer Tasting with support from Cork Wine and Tapas Bar, and Rose Alley Ale House. It will go from 6-8pm at Cork, upstairs. Tickets are $50 and there will be light hors d'eouvres for your enjoyment. Come on out and support NBCR! Bring your friends and have a fun night on the town tasting reds, whites, and some hops!

Fun morning in singles

Our numbers are a bit low now that we've wrapped up our official fall season, but there are definitely a few die hards out there. This morning myself and 3 such die hards had a small sculling lesson. It was dark when we arrived, pretty windy, and raining. Did they want to call it off? No way! So we took out the zephyrs that Paul Milde is letting us use and they had a blast! Funny enough, the rain wasn't hard but the winds actually died down once we launched! That never happens so it was a nice surprise. One person (Nancy Durfee) also has a line on an Alden shell that she may be acquiring over the winter and has agreed to let other NBCR members use it! If we can get Paul's zephyrs back in the spring, that means we'd have THREE singles to use! For a club that is so new, that's amazing. I love this place... :)

TRIVIA NIGHT!!!

That's right we're hosting a trivia night! It's going to be Tuesday November 23rd at Rose Alley Ale House in downtown New Bedford. Come on out from 6:30-8:30 with your team of 4-6 people (if you don't have 4, we'll pair you up with others!) and bring your thinking caps. Rose Alley Ale House serves great pub food, has a full bar, and yes as an ale house, a huge selection of beer. We're asking for $10 per person to support New Bedford Community Rowing, but we'll have prizes for you to win!

You can email me at carolyn@communityrowing.org to let me know that you've got a team and are ready to show your stuff, or just show up! We hope there is enough interest that we can do this every month with different prizes each month, but we already have several teams coming. We've got lots of things planned so stay tuned and I hope to see you on Tuesday the 23rd!!

Halloween & dressing properly

Well, I hope all of you out there had a fun and happy Halloween. Luckily, no tricks have been played on us, but we do have a treat. We get to keep rowing for 2 more weeks! Sure it's starting to get cold now that we've planned this but hey - we're tough and that won't stop us. Rowing in cold weather is why rowers are often called "gear-dogs"...we need all the fancy schmancy "wicking" shirts and leggings and all that stuff. We shop for the latest in material technology that REI has to offer and talk about our coolest new weather shirts.

Okay, so I make fun of us a little. But actually, dressing properly for working out in cold weather is very important. Sure you can spend tons of money on the latest greatest thing, but that's not necessary. Layering is key because you want to start off warm but be able to peel layers as you get further into your workout and begin to sweat. If you only have 2 layers on, you'll start off cold, then be burning up, strip to your one layer, then get it soaked and never be able to get warm after the practice is over. Making sure that the first layer is NOT cotton is also very important. Hikers have a saying that is true for all outdoor enthusiasts: "wet cotton kills". When you wear a cotton t-shirt and start sweating, it sticks to you. Then it cools off and between the cold sweat from the inside and the cold elements from the outside, you freeze. Make sure that the closest layer to your skin is something that will "wick" moisture away from you.

There are lots of options for what to wear and those of you that are internet savvy, do a search or two for proper outdoor gear for working out. The rest of you can ask a coach or go to a sporting goods store and see what they have available, and then ask the salesperson what the materials do. Even if you just go to the specialty store to find out about the materials, you can probably find similar materials at Target, Kohls, or Walmart. You don't have to spend a lot but it IS important to dress for the weather.

See ya out there!!