For indoor rowers, even the wit is dry
Sport's health benefits attract young and old, like Alden, 83
Paul McHugh, Chronicle Outdoors Writer
Thursday, December 2, 2004
Printable Version
Email This Article
Paul Mchugh
Archive
Adventures at Tahoe - Top skiers faced challenges from neophytes...
03/02/2006
OUTDOORS - MAIN EVENTS: Observe and participate - From cycling t...
03/02/2006
The not-so-tall tale of a trailblazer - He was gaudy, but not a ...
02/23/2006
In the beginning, there was rowing on water, a lovely, collegial sport. Yet, an activity not without difficulty -- including tide, waves, wind and cold, wintry weather.
Then, along came virtual rowing. Using exercise machines called ergometers, this was performed on terra firma and often indoors. True, on machines, one doesn't get to admire any soaring seagulls. However, sinking is pretty much absent as a hazard. Rowers used these rigs to augment their training, especially during winter months.
But in recent years, these gizmos have dramatically evolved in terms of efficiency and ease of use. The newest machines allow athletes to smoothly mimic their waterborne motions.
An unanticipated result is that use of rowing machines has broken free of its aquatic parent to become a sport in its own right. Indoor rowing now has its own disciplines, stars, leagues, rating system and international contests.
On Dec. 18, three Californians will be in Amsterdam on a 12-member U.S. team entered in the European Indoor Rowing Championships: Don Alden, Chris Pomer and Joan Van Blom.
"In the mid-1980s, I began to row again after a long absence. My club had a machine, but no one used it much. Just wasn't all that sophisticated," says Alden of Sacramento.
"But Concept2 developed rowing machines with little on-board computers. They gave you the data to see how you would do in a race, including where you'd finish. That marvelous, little black box has made all the difference.
"I bought my machine in 1990. And now I'm on my second. They keep getting better," Alden says.
Alden also keeps improving. At age 83, he'll take a fresh crack at beating the seniors he thoroughly thumped in England two years ago, at a prior international championship. The playing field will come courtesy of the computerized machines, which have proven just as popular in Europe as the United States. Arrange them in a line-up, link their computers to a large video screen or a Jumbotron, and everybody in the gym or arena can scream for a favorite as they watch virtual sculls scoot toward a finish line across a virtual lagoon.
Alden also pursues a victory of greater importance. A college rower for Cal in his youth, he saw his maritime fun disrupted by the Army in World War II, then totally ravaged by his long career as a bridge engineer in the California desert. He credits a post-retirement reunion with rowing with his return to robust good health.
"I was overweight, not feeling too energetic when I retired 20 years ago, " Alden says. "But I made friends with people at the Lake Natoma Rowing Association. They helped me get rowing again. I immediately took off about 20 pounds, and developed a lot more energy.
"It can do that for anyone. Rowing exercises all muscles, from your toes to the back of your neck. And it's very low-impact. Because you just slide back and forth on your butt as you sweat, that completely removes shock to your hips, knees and ankles."
He may star on the machines, but in summer Alden still spends at least four days a week on water. He sees the machines primarily as a training tool and rainy-day refuge -- though there are some indoor buffs who've never set an oar blade in actual fluid.
Even as they praise its benefits, indoor rowers stay keenly aware of the goofy aspect of their enterprise. In fact, they actually celebrate it. In doing so, they remain loyal to their roots.
It began as an organized sport shortly after President Carter announced a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Olympics in the Moscow, to protest the USSR invasion of Afghanistan. A boisterous group of ex-Olympians and other competitive rowers who dubbed themselves the CRASH-Bs (Charles River All-Star Has-Beens) initiated the first contest on then-new Concept2 machines in 1982. It began with the national anthem played on a kazoo. Then a starter with a megaphone, standing in a rowboat stranded on a gym floor, guided 75 participants in their dry regatta.
Now, the U.S. National Championship, still called the CRASH-Bs and held annually in Boston, draws 2,200 participants from all over the world. It and 20 qualifying preliminaries around the U.S. attracted 11,000 participants in 2003. (The next Bay Area satellite race takes place Jan. 23 at Burlingame High School; see www.concept2.com/rowing/racing/calendar.asp, for details.)
"This is a sport that doesn't take itself too seriously," says Robert Brody, the indoor race coordinator for Concept2. "Everything's tongue-in-cheek. At least, until we sit down on the machines. Then it turns very serious. Our event commodore says, this takes a beautiful sport, outdoor rowing, and boils it down to its lowest common denominator -- pain."
Concept2 was founded in 1976 by a pair of brothers, engineers who also happened to be competitive rowers, Dick and Pete Dreissigacker. Their initial products for rowers were composite racing oars. Their debut rowing machine used a bicycle wheel transformed into a fan flywheel for movement resistance (older ergometers used clunky resistance mechanisms like pistons) and a simple odometer for record keeping.
Their brand-new model D, for home use or competition, is built on an aluminum I-beam rail with a stainless steel seat track. It's two feet wide, nearly eight feet long, and weighs 60 pounds. Its PM3 monitor/computer can track workouts or contests. Rowers can even race against their own performance from a previous workout. Contest efforts take place on a virtual course, commonly using rowing's standard 2,000-meter distance. Top times in most age groups are below eight minutes -- which demands a hearty, anaerobic sprint. It's no wonder that pain can become a factor.
But, naturally, there are many more denominators in this activity. One is camaraderie.
"I began rowing on sculls for a women's team in college," says Joan Van Blom, 52, of Long Beach. "I wasn't competitive in high school. But I was looking for some physical activity, as well as a social avenue."
After serving on three U.S. Olympic squads (and winning a silver medal twice), Van Blom found her social avenue jammed with friends, at both indoor and aquatic events. She even met her husband at one.
"I think indoor rowing and the online regattas will only increase in popularity," Van Blom says. "People want ways to trim off weight and stay healthy. This is one of the best ways. You can even do it in your 90s."
Chris Pomer, 16, of Sacramento, has been using aquatic and indoor rowing to shape his body and health since he was 11. Now, standing well over six feet tall, he weighs a muscular 225.
"Once, I was a kind of fat, TV-watching kid," Pomer says. "Rowing made me a lot stronger, mentally much more confident. I hope to do well on the junior national team, then go to a good Ivy League rowing school, or Cal or University of Washington. I want to row in a Olympics before I'm done with competing. But I think I'll probably row my whole life long."
E-mail Paul McHugh at pmchugh@sfchronicle.com.
Page D - 10
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
