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The newsletter of the North Palm Beach Rowing Club
EDITORS NOTE:
This edition comes at the end of the spring
rowing season which by all accounts was a
really great season marked by many, many
good results and events. None of these would
have happened without the strong commitment
of parents, students and members and from
countless volunteer hours donated to the
organization. Our lead article puts the
successes of the season into perspective and
highlights specific accomplishments of our
younger rowers. Thank you all for your support!
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SPRING SEASON JUNIOR
AND PBAU HIGHLIGHTS
FSRA State Sweep Championships - The
spring racing season for the juniors ended on a
high note with the NPBRC Juniors placing 2
boats into the Grand Finals and 1 boat into
Petite Finals at the FSRA State Championships
against over 50 schools and well over a
thousand competitors.
The girl’s pair of senior Kathleen Kuesters and
novice Aubrey O’Brien finished in the top five of
the state of Florida! After the days fastest heat
— if they had been in the other heats they
would have advanced straight to Grand Finals
rather than racing through reps -- they showed
great determination and raw fortitude by battling
through bronchitis, high wind, rough water and a
dozen other boats to race almost into the
medals!
minute time. WELL DONE! The technically
correct lightweight quad of Matt Green, Casey
Moore, Connor Downey and Michael Ricci laid
down the FASTEST TIME EVER of a 5:19 for
an NPBRC quad of ANY weight class, to finish
8th in the state in a breakaway race. Fantastic
racing!
The boy’s Junior quad of Preston Kirschner,
Cameron Winslow, Ethan Ridgeway and Nik
Lafontaine made their way into Petites to finish
third, finishing top 10 in the state! The boy’s
lightweight double of Ben Garelick and Conrad
Fite, in their first showing at states finished 4th in
the Petite Finals! As most of you know there are
loads of really great pictures contributed by
Julie O’Brien which can be found using
TeamApp or from her website which is at
http://julieobrienphotography.com Thanks Julie!
Next up for the juniors is the team End-ofSeason Banquet which is from 6-8PM on
Friday, May 8th at the Rialto Club, 104 Castle
Island, Jupiter. You should have seen the
announcement on TeamApp. The gate code
can be found there as well. Dress is casual and
there is a buffet dinner from 6-7PM followed by
the awards presentation.
PBAU- Palm Beach Atlantic University attended
two regattas this spring in their inaugural
season with NPBRC. After medaling in several
races in the Tampa Mayors Cup Regatta, Colt
Griffin was selected to represent the team
at the FIRA Collegiate State Sculling
Championships to place 4th in the Grand
Finals.
The club is steadily getting faster and faster,
nipping at the heels of national medalists like
Miami and Sarasota. The team is learning how,
not just to row a race, but to RACE a race. Very
exciting and well done everyone! Well done…
The boys pair of Devon Scirrotto and Connor
Downey raced straight into the Grand Final from
the heats, but got a bad lane draw and were
placed in the outside lane “wind and wave
tunnel” to finish 8th in the state — top ten guys!
Very impressive!
COACH’S CORNER
Rowing Clean
Rowing clean, without technical mistakes,
means YOU do not give your opponent
anything. One of the best ways to row clean is
to steer straight! Watch every little fishtail in
your track, every bad stroke; try to correct on
the next stroke. I have seen crews race 2032
meters--in a 2000 meter race because they are
rowing serpentine tracks down their lane.
Frustrating!
Every day, no matter what the workout you are
doing, practice steering straight. Watch your
track off the stern and particularly discipline
yourself to be aware, from a single sculler to a
coxed eight of your surroundings and WHERE
you are on the course and in your own lane.
If you are in a blind boat, take one mental
snapshot when you turn to check your path
every 7 or 8 strokes. Don't keep turning
anxiously to see--trust yourself, trust what you
saw, take a snapshot and hold it in your mind’s
eye. This way, you won't be offsetting the boat
each time you turn.
This is a skill, just like pulling the oar correctly,
so train yourself to beware of every nuance in
the shell, every movement underneath you--so
you row STRAIGHT!"
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JUNE 6TH NATIONAL
LEARN-TO-ROW DAY FAST
APPROACHING
The light four had a tough go against some of
the fastest lightweights in the nation, and having
to race twice at the end of a very long, hot day.
Matt Green, Casey Moore, Michael Ricci and
Cameron Winslow, with Brianna Gagliardi
coxing in a bowloader, eliminated several boats
to make Petite finals. All three boats made
finals, WELL DONE!
FSRA Sculling Championships - Held earlier
in the month, single sculler Leonie Meyaart
raced straight into the light weight Grand Finals
from her heat — AS A NOVICE! Double
partners Kathleen Kuesters and Aubrey O’Brien
made Petite Finals, with boy’s double partners,
novice Anthony Kuzenkov and junior Devon
Scirrotto finishing into Petites also, in a sub six
April-May 2015
PBAU enjoys an “end-of-season” breakfast at the club.
Just when you think we can take a break there
is another event looming for which we must
prepare – National Learn-to-Row Day. It’s
quite possible that some of you first heard about
NPBRC by attending one of these events. In
case you didn’t we seem to attract more and
more prospective rowers each year as the
public’s awareness of the sport continues to
spread. This year likely will be another banner
year for us and that means we can use a bit of
help as we deal with the moving parts of making
N O R T H P A L M B E A C H R O W I N G C L U B I S A 5 0 1 ( C ) ( 3 ) N O T - F O R - P R O F I T , T AX E X E M P T F L O R I D A
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NEWSLETTE R
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the day successful for everyone. We won’t know
until that day just how many we will get so we
are planning for a solid turnout and we will need
some help, both on the beach and upland.
We break the activities into several stations: a
welcome desk, erg demonstration and live
interactive area, a static display of a single
racing shell and oars for all to get an up close
look, a tent over by the water for handouts and
information, an active beach demonstration
area with several boats on the water with
member rowers in attendance and, last but not
least a final station where we can sign people
up for follow-on lessons or camps, etc. Jock will
host a planning meeting on the 19th at 5PM at
the club for interested parents or volunteers.
Since the duration of the open house is 3 hours
(9AM-12PM) volunteers may want to pull a
shorter shift or rotate through the stations so
having a few more hands will make it easier for
all. If interested please feel free to e-mail Jock
at merriamj@bellsouth.net or just come to the
planning meeting. We have already heard from
several juniors who are volunteering. They will
be eligible for community service hours so
parents please remind them to bring whatever
school forms are necessary so we can sign off.
when others returned from kayaking and they
never noticed another person there. No worries:
we will soon put a gate key on the inside of the
side gate as well as the usual system on the
outside so in the worst case you can always
access a key for that lock.
Should you wish to report a safety issue or
concern a list of the safety committee members
is at the end of this newsletter.
Surprise Visit by WinTec
As many of you know getting to a regatta takes
a lot of work with many moving parts and lots of
work to do before, during and after the event.
It’s a well-choreographed exercise as each
boat, oar, cooler, and other stuff has its own
place on the trailer. The trailer of course is the
unsung workhorse as it follows happily along
knowing it’s got the goodies everyone will need
once there.
We received a surprise visit from a local WinTec
rep a few weeks ago….well actually he was
local but also happens to be the founder of the
company: Howard Winklevoss, NOT a local
salesperson. What a pleasant surprise. He lives
here in the winter and was looking to start a
beginner rowing activity at his health club at
Lost Tree Village when he heard about our club
from one of our members who also resides
there. He stopped by and we had a great
conversation about rowing and possible
collaboration in helping his club get a learn-torow activity going. We hope to partner to bring
the sport to some of their members, possibly at
their site but also possibly at ours. He also
wanted to have a look at the Wintec boats in our
inventory and after doing so decided to donate
new riggers for both of our doubles and a new
seat for one of them. What a nice gesture and a
great boon to the club. It will greatly extend the
life of these two boats. Thank You Howard!
In the small world category it turns out that
Coach Susan had interviewed both of his sons,
Cameron and Tyler for one of her books: The
Eight: A Season in the Tradition of Harvard
Crew. They were both members of Harvard’s
varsity crew and 2008 US Olympic Team men’s
members and inspired Howard to launch a new
club and build a very successful company
around the sport. Not bad.
Trailer Gets Upgrade
However, upon closer inspection it seems that
the trailer wasn’t really following exactly
along…rather it was more like “crabbing” along.
Why he never mentioned this is still a mystery.
Yep, the axels were just off-kilter enough to
cause wear spots on the tire treads which also
affected safety. In addition, given the length of
the overall system we should have had surge
brakes all along. Now we do, and new radial
tires too. One other little detail was also not
quite right: we needed to have the rear running
lights within four feet of the longest overhanging
piece of equipment. Thus when we had “eights”
on top we needed to be able to extend the
trailing lights. As the picture clearly shows we
have now done that too- and it’s removable.
Let’s give thanks to Kauff’s Trailers for doing a
wonderful job, and to Bryan Jandorf for helping
to design the fix and Brian O’Brien for bringing
all of this to our attention and also for doing
such a yeoman’s job of hauling the team and all
of its stuff to so many regattas this year!
Safety Moment
Rowing Alone
HOUSEKEEPING
Don’t get locked out!
Better yet, don’t lock someone in. We’ve had
both happen lately: a member who arrived but
forgot the gate code and couldn’t get in and a
couple of members who found themselves
locked in after others had left. Root cause
diagnosis leads to the conclusion that those
locked in had failed to sign their names on the
whiteboard so others who returned from their
rows, seeing no slings and no names on the
board went ahead and closed everything up. In
one instance a member was using the ergs
Being on the water by yourself has its special
allure for sure: just you, just the water, just
perfect! It also comes with some obligations.
The first is respect. Respect the water. Know
which way the tide is flowing and how strong it
is. Look near the dock pilings and you can see if
it is really ‘pulling”. Respect the weather: which
way is the wind is blowing? Look for signs of
impending bad weather. Down here a
thunderstorm can appear quickly and lightning
is always a concern. If leaving the site after
coming off the water remember to tie down your
shell snugly as a micro-burst from a passing
storm can send them flying. Respect Wildlife. It
has happened to others so it can happen to
you: getting hit or even flipped by a manatee.
Do not chase them, or tease them….just enjoy
knowing that they share the water with you in
peace….and then calmly get back into your
shell. Simple, right? !
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Summer is Almost Here
announcement soon. We’re targeting the last
Saturday in May but this could change.
And that means CAMPs
New Website
We are planning several camps for the summer.
Novice Camp: The first will follow immediately
after the National LTR-Day, June 8-13th and will
target new rowers, both adult and youth. The
camp will be run in two levels, 10:00-11:30AM
for any novice older than high school and 11:30
-1:00PM for high school age persons.
Advanced Camp, June 15-20th .This is aimed at
current rowers who know how to row. Class size
is limited to twelve people and goes from
9:00AM -1:00PM. The first session from 910:00AM features rowing followed by video
replay from 10 -11AM. The second session is
from 11:00AM -1:00PM and includes rowing
and wash down.
A second Novice and Returning Rower
Camp: June 22-26th. This will be like the first
and will catch any who may have missed the
first camp and any returning junior rowers who
want to get some early training or conditioning.
Times will be reversed and high school will go
first beginning at 10:00AM and novices older
than high school will start at 11:30AM.
Please let your friends know and speak directly
with Coach Susan for further information and to
let her know of your interest. Note too that she
will be gone most of July at US Nationals with
Jacqui Kapinowski as Jacqui competes for a
seat to Rio. Go Jacqui!
Beach Improvements
If you row or have a penchant for watching
practices you may have noted that when the
tide is in the beach is NON-EXISTENT. This
can be a problem, not just for our teams but
also for teaching learn-to-row classes. You just
can’t do much with no beach.
By the time you get this you will also have seen
our newly revised website. To repeat some of
what we had in the last newsletter some of the
new features include the ability to sign up online
on the website for any of our programs and also
to pay for them at the same time. We will keep
Regatta Central available as a backup but
expect PayPal to be more useful for us and also
you. When you join as a member or register for
a learn-to-row class or sign up your child for a
competitive program you should be able to do it
all in one stop. All members will also get a
username and password which will allow you to
see and interact with protected functions such
as the club calendar to reserve a boat, the
member’s forum to stay in the loop for what
others are doing or join a user group. Members
will get an e-mail with instructions on getting
through the initial registration and on how to
interact with the new features.
County Commission
Recognizes NPBRC
The Palm Beach County Commission,
specifically Commissioner Hal Valeche,
recognized NPBRC at the monthly commission
meeting on April 7th. The proclamation noted our
many accomplishments since our formation 8
years ago and called attention to the numerous
successes our junior rowers have had in recent
regattas. Representing the club and receiving
the Proclamation were Matt Green, senior
captain and Head Coach Susan Saint Sing.
Matt has the unique distinction of having been
active with the club for almost its entire
existence, starting with our first Holiday Boat
Parade row in December 2007. Great job
coaches and team!
is designed for the general public who want to
give it a try, and who may just “walk in” without
prior plans. We hope to interest those from the
National LTR event to sign up for this. He will
line up a cox and pull if/as needed from
master’s members to build an eight for a novice
row. The intent is to make it easy for someone
who has always wanted to give it a try but who
also is not looking to commit….yet. The cost is
$100 for a one-month membership which is
creditable toward the full annual member fee if
they join. They’ll get on the water right away
and it lets them try it on before committing to a
full membership. This has worked at other clubs
to draw in new members and he’s ready and
eager to see it we can have similar success
here. We have dates listed on the calendar so
please help spread the word and make people
aware that it’s available. The first one is the
weekend of June 20-21st.
NPBRC Board and Coaches
President
Jessica Merriam
Vice President
Shirley Blackall
Secretary
Gretta Curry
Treasurer
Jock Merriam
Director
Ray Bernard
Director
Beth Eisenman
Head Coach
Susan Saint Sing
Assistant Coach
Monica Larkin
Assistant Coach
Billy White
A solution is at hand. We have tried a test patch
where we removed much of the overhanging
underbrush from the area just to the north of our
launch site (right photo). The resulting debris
pile is at the right. We are now ready to ask for
a club workday to give all members and friends
a chance to help as we clear another 20 meters
to the north. Stay tuned for another
Row with Ray
We’re starting a new program to see if people
like it. It’s called “Row with Ray”, with the Ray
being board member Ray Bernard. He will be
using one of the club’s “eights” to introduce
novices to the sport and to sweep rowing. This
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New Masters Members
Annual Calendar of Events - 2015
st
th
Jan: 1 day of HS training Jan 6 . LTR- Jan 16-18th
th
th
Feb: High School, Feb 7 - Southern Sprints, F I T campus, Melbourne Florida; LTR- 13-15 ;
Visiting Masters Camp- 15-18th; Junior ID National Camp (select juniors)- 15th; Visiting
Masters Camp- 22-25th ; Feb 28th- Sarasota Invitational Regatta
Mar: 14th- OARs invitational, Turkey Lake, Orlando Florida (Masters and high school);
March 21st, Tampa Mayor’s Cup (HS and Masters); 27-29th- LTR, Full Moon Row
Apr: 4th, Miami International Regatta; April 11 and 12th, Florida Interscholastic Sculling
State Championship, Sarasota Florida; 18th, Annual Members Meeting and Masters
Social; April 25 and 26th, Florida Interscholastic Sweep State Championships, Sarasota
Florida; HS season ends/social event
May: 8th - High School End-of-Season Social, Rialto Club, Jupiter; 15-16th – Stotesbury
Cup, Philadelphia; 15-17th- LTR; 22-23rd – SSRA Scholastic Nationals, Cooper Creek, NJ
(champion juniors)
Jun: 6th- National LTR Day (9:00AM-Noon); Summer Camps: 8-13th , 10:00-11:30AM for
new rowers older than high school, 11:30AM-1:00PM for novice/new high school rowers;
15-20th- Advanced camp for those who already know how to row; 20-21st- “Row with
Ray” for novices who want to try an “eight”; 22-26th- New Rowers camp (second camp for
novices- same as first above but with time slots reversed); 27-28th – “Row with Ray”
(same as above)
Jul: TBA- Florida State Games (Masters and high school), Sarasota Florida; 7-8th – “Row
with Ray” for novices who want to try an “eight”; LTR- 24-26th ; Coach and Jacqui
Kapinowski at US Nationals
Aug: 7-9th- LTR; 10-15th- Juniors camp for new and returning rowers; 22nd- HS Fall
Registration begins; fall juniors begin 3-day/week training through Sept 9th; 18th, PB
County Public School Start
Sept: 9th- OAPB school start date; TBA- PBAU Start date; 19th- Junior final processing
date/cutoff for fall season. : 26-28th- LTR
Murray Fournie
Mary Schrot
Sloan Mathis
RuthAnn Carey
Susan Conaty
Jacqui Kapinowski
Alan McDonald
Caroline Howe
Jim Hatch
Deena Ruiz
Dan Mellon
These are new members joining within last 90 days.
Welcome Aboard!
Safety Committee:
Jock Merriam, Chair
Gretta Curry
Alex Chin
Mary Boehm
Rick Blackall
Susan Saint Sing, Head Coach
Oct: Regattas: Head of Indian Creek; Full Moon Row; HS FUNDRAISER
Nov: Regattas: Head of the Giblet; LTR; Full Moon Row; Masters Fall Social
Dec: Holiday Boat Parade (1st Saturday); Full Moon Row
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