Beginner's Guide to Rowing

Video Transcript

CHARLES BARKSDALE: Hi. My name is Charles Barksdale and I am with the Texas Rowing Center. Today I will be giving you a brief introduction into the world of rowing. If we look at this boat here we have a sculling shell or a single. We have many types of rowing equipment but this is made for one person. We have equipment that goes for people up to eight. In rowing, unlike most sports when you think of kayaking or canoeing, you use your legs more than you use your upper body so the seat moves here to allow you to get full use of your legs. Rowing is actually considered second in overall body workout right behind cross-country skiing. Rowers are some of the fittest athletes in the world. Rowing can be taken to any level that you would like. You can row in the Olympics or you can go out here and have a nice row on the lake. It is a beautiful sport. One of the odd things about rowing though is you travel backwards. You actually do not see where you are going. You just see where you have been, and that is kind of unusual for most people but it really gives you a good scenery of what you have just covered. The boats are very expensive. These are very light as the same but you would see in the Olympics is boat cost around $6,000. It is made up of unidirectional carbon fiber. The boat actually is 27 to 30 feet long and it only weighs 28 pounds so it's very light and very stiff which is amazing considering that it holds the weight of a rower here who can be over 200 pounds. In the eight shells, they have rowers up to 1750 pounds and the boat is only 200 pounds and it can support their weight and take them down the lake.