Although incredibly rare, as a water based sport rowers need to be extra aware of the possibility of lightning strikes. Essentially if there’s even a remote forecast of lightning we won’t take to the water for training or races.
Rowers may be more susceptible to lightning strikes due to them often being the highest point in a largely flat wide body of water and as such we have to be extra cautious. So regardless of how good conditions may appear to be we will (and have) call off training depending on the weather forecast. Luckily in Ireland we don’t have a large amount of thunderstorms and lightning strikes on people are incredibly rare but we have to ensure we take sensible precautions.
Rowing Ireland have put together a good information pamphlet on this issue and you can read the details in the link below. As always, if you have any questions please speak to any of our coaches about this issue.