The Wind at Karapiro

We all knew Karapiro, the beautiful lake where the 2010 World Championships are taking place, would be windy. We heard that the gusty winds would come and when they did, they could come from any direction. Today they came from a pretty straight tail screaming through the rolling hills and otherwise calm pasture lands.

Unfortunately, the wind built and built until they had to cancel the rest of the races for the day. At the time they made that call, we, the open weight women’s quad, were just about half way through our warm up on the water. That means it was about seventy five minutes after we first started taking strokes on the erg.

I was angry. I wanted to race. Specifically, I wanted to race in that horrible, gusty wind. I’m not even afraid to say the L word here. I Love wind. I like the way it changes the odds, it mixes it up, and mostly it unnerves everyone at some point during that 2000 meters.

I think the reason I love racing in strong wind is probably because the race becomes more about strength and grit and a tiny bit less about physiology. But like any one-sided love, wind is constantly building me up and then letting me down. I’ve had some awful rows in high winds. Bloody knuckles and stiff muscles. Bad dock landings and swamped crews. But at the end of the day, I still love racing in crazy winds.

Unfortunately, the end of this day left us paddling down the course without a race. But like any part time romantic looking for the silver lining, I remind myself that luckily this is Karapiro. The wind will keep coming, and no matter from which direction, the women’s quad will be ready.

- Sarah Trowbridge, USA 2010 W4x

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 7:17 pm. It is filed under Rowers, TEAM USA, World Championships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.