Many parents and guardians of our Juniors may not be familiar with the sport of rowing so this page and the attached documents will help to guide you through the terminology, what we do on race days, how you can help out and how to assist your kids.
Terminology
Rowing has a large amount of terms that you may not be familiar with at first. They’ll become second nature in time as you hear them over and over again but in the meantime if you’re new to this we’ve put together a document showing the most common terms used.
Clothing and equipment
Broadly speaking your kids won’t need any of their own rowing equipment. Given the high costs of racing boats, blades (oars) and other items the club supplies all of this. However you will need to ensure that all participants have suitable clothing depending on the time of year and weather.
The link below shows the clothing requirements for all sessions and also there is a section for Winter clothing and Summer clothing. Cotton clothing is not permitted for training or racing, it holds too much water and is a safety issue in the event an athlete goes into the water. Lycra leggings (Winter) or shorts (Summer) should be worn.
In addition to this all members taking part in regattas will need to have a Club one piece and a long sleeved white under-armour base layer. We are currently arranging new suppliers for Club branded gear. (To be updated). In the meantime previous suppliers are listed below and may have some older stock.
- Excel Promotions Waterford – Hi-Vis training tops, Hoodies, Half-Zips etc
- Teamwearstore.ie supply One-pieces, Splash jackets and other items (TBC for 2023/2024)
Racing – Regattas / Head of the Rivers
During racing season there are 3 main types of races
Head of the Rivers – These are generally longer distance time trials that are run mostly over the Winter and Spring months
- Head of the Rivers – (HOTR) These are generally longer distance time trials that are run mostly over the Winter and Spring months. They can range normally from 2000 metres up to 4000 metres. A lot of our Winter indoor training involves long distance pieces on the Ergs (rowing machines)
- Regattas – Regattas are the more common Spring and Summer races and feature crews racing each other on the river or lake. There can be anything from 2 lanes to 6 lanes depending on the location of the regatta. Regattas are run over a much shorter distance than HOTR’s with anything from 500 metres up to 2000 metres.
- Indoor Rowing – Indoor rowing consists of races against a large number of competitors on Concept 2 Ergs. There are National championships and also Provincial championships. Loads more info can be found on the IIRC website here
We’ve put together a parents guide for the uninitiated. Well worth a read if you haven’t been to a regatta before.
Helping Out
As we’re a voluntary organisation we’re always delighted to have parents or guardians to help out. Don’t worry if you know nothing about rowing there’s always a job that needs doing either at training or at the races themselves.
It doesn’t have to be rowing related, if you’re familiar with First Aid, Lifesaving, nutrition,, yoga etc and are willing to give a talk to the kids we’d be glad to try and set something up. If can drive a boat or can tow a trailer (BE Licence) we’d always be glad to have volunteers here as well. If anyone is interested in coaching or becoming a coach we can assist there as well. It might even be as simple as being around at the start or end of training to help get boats in and out of the water. We’ll always try and find a job if you want one. Just talk to one of the coaches or if you’d prefer you can email us here – volunteering@waterfordboatclub.ie
If anyone would like to try their hand at writing race reviews for the website or local papers I’d be especially glad to hear from you 😉
Sponsors
Finally, a shameless plug. If anyone is interested in sponsoring the club or knows a business that might be interested in providing sponsorship we’d be delighted to hear from you. We can be contacted at secretary@waterfordboatclub.ie if you know of anybody who might be interested.