Dear Michael
You will hear a lot more from me than you bargained for. :-)
I am slowly figuring out my "schedule" and my purpose next to being the best father and husband I can be to my family... The figuring out started in July 2002... A slow process it has been without question.
I am really happy that I found a passion for indoor rowing after competing. It is awesome for me to watch people discover rowing and become fitter through our workouts on DVD and at the Iron Oarsman. At the same time I get to workout on a daily basis.
It is amazing how ACTIVE the indoor rowing circuit is in the UK and how stimulating the UK Concept2 website is. It is exciting to follow the highschool indoor rowing program in Birmingham where indoor rowing is being incorporated into the PE curriculum, to make students fit and healthy. I like observing the U.K., because I want to help the United States discover indoor rowing the same way.
Concept2 USA has not found interest in what I am doing here on the West Coast, even though I am the ONLY full time indoor rowing studio in the USA. Over the last three years I figured out that "Vermont" does not involve itself directly into small operations like mine.
To their CREDIT, C2USA does a very good job in customer service and product support, which I enjoyed over the years.
However, I have been immensly frustrated because (arguably) NO BODY knows indoor rowing in the US! This is slowly changing because a couple of people (I am one of them) are making some ripples. My marketing skills are improving, yet it would have been amazing to get marketing help and dollars from Vermont.
It is too late now, because I am going to sell Rowperfect on the western half of the United States. I am as pumped to succeed in bringing indoor rowing to the less active US citizens, as I was when I trained for the Olympics. The market is huge and the possibility of improving people's lifes is in less fortunate areas is enormous. When I look towards the future, I see many neighborhood and city indoor rowing COOPs.
Within a couple of weeks I will be filming the first Indoor Rowing Workout on the newly redesigned Rowperfect. For peole rowing at home, it won't matter whether they use ROWPERFECT or the Concetp2 on slides, the result will be the same, a great workout! (Although, in my opinion, the feel is smoother and more responsive on the Rowperfect).
Both machines have the ability to measure distance the same way. What is not widely known is that the C2 is calibrated similarly to a men's 4- in which the rowers weigh 220 pounds. This is the information one has to dial into the Rowperfect in order to compare rowing results.
Alright that is it for now. Row on, I believe that I will be hitting in the middle 3 million for this season.
All the best and thank you for giving me the opportunity to stand on my little internet soap box!
XENO
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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