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They called it Stonewall On Steroids. A record breaking number of entries and a 25% increase in participants pushed the XXII (22nd) Stonewall Regatta to an almost record capacity for a one-day event. The official regatta tally was 251 entries from 26 clubs with the most distant entry coming from Los Angeles. That record number of entries pushed the total participants to a count of 525. Unnoticed by the organizers, the DC Strokes Rowing Club, that fact pushed the Stonewall Regatta up a notch. USRowing classifies regattas in three categories: small, medium, and large. Small regattas are 0 - 499 participants. Medium regattas are 500 - 999 participants, and large regattas are 1000+ participants.
Congratulations Stonewall Regatta. You are now a medium-size regatta!
Led by the experienced team of Elisabeth Morgan, Joe Henderson, and Susan Jacoby, and 12 other committee members and an amazing group of volunteers, the 2015 Stonewall Regatta was a grand success. Under party cloudy to mostly sunny skies, rowers raced on Sunday, 07 June 2015 from 08h30 to 16h30. Mostly calm waters and little to just light breezes made racing easy and the infamous Washington DC humidity decided to take a day off. Debris on the Anacostia River was almost nonexistent. The rascally tides that hold sway on the Potomac River and the Anacostia River made their presence known as the stakeboats began to move around 11h00. Unfazed, the USRowing race officials shifted to floating starts and race starts remained on schedule.
This being Washington DC, the brilliant accountants and statisticians who make the US government function immediately set to work to explain the jump in race entries. Was it an increase in eights? Actually, the number of eight entries was down slightly. Was it from a particular club or in a particular boat class? As Joe Henderson, registrar of the regatta explained over a mai tai at the after party : "there was no real cause ... entries were up almost 25% across the board."
Following the regatta, rowers gathered at a special private party at Vida Gym's rooftop bar and pool at the Washington Navy Yard. Rowers relaxed around the pool, in sectional firerpit seatings, and hung out at the bar to discuss the finer points of their wins and near wins. Very few regattas have such fancy digs for a post-regatta party. Kudos to Brian Forehand for putting together an amazing evening!
GLRF hosted a booth at the 2015 USRowing Southwest Regional Junior Championships at Lake Natoma, east of Sacramento, 01 - 03 May 2015. Other than some afternoon winds gusts, weather was perfect for the racing and crews were racing for finishes as well as qualification for the USRowing National Junior Championships in June at Nathan Benderson Park in Sarasota, Florida. The regatta had 570 entries from 35 clubs, including several from brand new juniors clubs.
The racing was incredibly competitive with three races being called by photofinish.
The juniors went crazy for the GLRF biSweptual shirts and the wild spandex shorts. We lost count of the number of parents who came by to say how great it was that the GLRF booth was at the event. Thanks Mom and Dad!
GLRF hosted a booth at the 2015 Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships at Lake Natoma, east of Sacramento, 25 - 26 Apr 2015. The weather seemed to be a carbon copy of the previous year, with a massive rain storm on Friday evening and then perfect weather Saturday and Sunday. Crews from 36 clubs competed over the two day event. University of California Santa Barbara had the most first place finishes but crews from lesser known schools like Lewis & Clark, Western Washington University, and Humboldt State University also recorded first place finishes
The GLRF booth was a crazed with people as crews snatched up the new Port and Starboard Curious shirts, the discounted Naked Rowing calendars, and the wild spandex shorts. The Humboldt State crew that came in first in their race had all purchased wild pink zebra shorts and they were the talk of the race as the crews came down the course!
A big shout out to the 6' 5" hottie rower from UCSB who bought the GLRF Come Out and Row shirt and wore it around the regatta all weekend.
GLRF once again hosted a vendor's booth at the 2015 San Diego Crew Classic, 28 - 29 March. The entries were slightly lighter this year due to a scheduling conflict with the women's Pac-12 Challenge. Even so, crews from all over North America converged in San Diego for a weekend of typical California rowing: sunshine and calm water.
It was great to see GLRF members from both the East and West coast who stopped by to say hello and catch up.
This year marked the launch of the latest GLRF t-shirts, Port Curious and Starboard Curious. The t-shirt design was a result of a rowing good samaritan who had stopped by the GLRF booth at the 2014 Head of the Charles. He declared that he had an idea for a shirt and he would give it to us for free if we promised to make the shirt. We said we might, if we knew the concept. After he revealed the idea, we smiled and said, yep, you have our word.
Fast forward to the 2015 Crew Classic where the shirts were put on display and guess who stops by but the rowing good samaritan who jumped with delight at seeing the shirts on display. Needless to say, we were happy to wish him well with a complimentary shirt and pride in our chest that we kept our promise.
Credit for the shirts must also go out to GLRF member @Bob715 who did the final editing for the back of the shirt that made it so wildly popular among the booth visitors:
GLRF doesn't usually reveal our members' true identities but we are happy to give a hint to those rowing folks in the know. He signs his emails as BBBBBB!
GLRF increased its country membership representation once again when a current member updated his profile to reflect his residence in Zimbabwe. GLRF now counts 42 countries with members.
With the new GLRF Countries application, we were able to bring the GLRF Zimbabwe country page online in less than an hour.
Although rowing in Zimbabwe is not well-known, the country has had several recent high profile rowers winning at the Under 23 World Championships as well as compete at the 2012 Olympics.
A recent World Rowing article, highlighted the accomplishments:
And where does one row in Zimbabwe? At the Hunyani Rowing Club on the Mazowe Dam, of course!
Nigeria became the 41st country in the GLRF Worldwide community when a member registered from the city of Abuja. With the addition of Nigeria, the GLRF Africa - Middle East region has expanded to 6 countries: Israel, Kenya, Nigeria, Qatar, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. For those who wonder about rowing in Africa, there is a strong competitive rowing presence. Take a look at this article in GLRF Categories: African Rowing Championships extend medal spread.
When thinking about Africa, most people think of Egypt or Kenya or South Africa. In fact, Nigeria is known as the "Giant of Africa," with a population of 174 million, making it the most populous country on the African continent. Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the largest in Africa, exceeding US $500 billion, overtaking South Africa, and ranking as the world's 21st largest economy.
A warm welcome to our first Nigerian member, and we hope he will spread the word and encourage other rowers to join from around the African region!
The Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation has formed a promotional and marketing partnership with the Aviron Club Lyon-Caluire, the club behind the 2015 naked rowing calendar, Les Dieux de l'Aviron (The Gods of Rowing). The partnership supports the efforts of GLRF to further the acceptance and inclusion of gay and lesbian rowers, coxies, coaches, and race officials within the broader rowing community.
GLRF serves as the exclusive marketing partner for the calendar in North America. The calendar was on display at the GLRF booth for two of the largest fall head races in North America, the Head of the Schuylkill and the Head of the Hooch, and is available online at http://shop.glrf.info
GLRF hopes its sales efforts in North America will develop a greater awareness for the impressive calendar which features several elite rowers who have competed and won gold and silver at the French National Rowing Championships. Proceeds of the sales help to raise funds for the Aviron Club Lyon-Caluire as well as the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation.
In turn, the Aviron Club Lyon-Caluire has pledged their support for the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation by affixing the GLRF logo directly on the calendar, along with highlighting the three main goals of the organization:
Provides a worldwide online community to connect gay and lesbian rowers, coxies, coaches, and race and regatta officials
Seeks to achieve the open acceptance [beyond tolerance] of gay and lesbian rowers in the broader rowing community
Promotes rowing in the global lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population.
On the Dieux de l'Aviron website, they have stated their support for GLRF:
GLRF is literally on the front lines striving for acceptance and inclusion of gay and lesbian rowers at all levels of the sport within the broader rowing community. GLRF hosts vendor booths at the largest straight rowing regattas in North America, creating a visible presence to the chief influencers within the rowing community: parents, coaches, teammates, and race officials.
In 2014, GLRF hosted 8 booths at some of the largest rowing regattas, including the San Diego Crew Classic, the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships, the Southwest Junior Rowing Championships, the American Collegiate Rowing Association Championships, the USRowing Junior National Championships, the Head of the Charles Regatta, the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta, and the Head of the Hooch Regatta.
The 2015 Eurogames, an event compromising culture, politics, and sport, will feature rowing in their 25-sport programme. The event takes place between 05 - 09 August, with rowing practice to take place on Thursday, 06 August, and the competition to be held on Friday and Saturday, 07 - 08 August. The regatta will be hosted by the Stockholms & Svealands Roddistikt, in partnership with the 2015 Eurogames organizing commitee, at Magelungen Lake. The regatta will consist of a 1,000 m. sprint race format. Regatta registration will be handled with the general Eurogames registration.
After reviewing the 2015 Eurogames Rowing web page, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation contacted the Eurogames sports director to ask for some clarification and additional features. What follows is a report of the correspondence, some of which has yet to be posted on the web page.
The cost to register has two tiers:
For members of the European Gay and Lesbian Sports Federation (EGLSF), the regular registration cost is 65 Euros through 31 December 2014. Starting on 01 January 2015, the late registration cost rises to 85 Euros and closes on 31 May 2015.
For non-members, the regular registration cost is 90 Euros through 31 December 2014. Starting on 01 January 2015, the late registration cost rises to 110 Euros, and closes on 31 May 2015.
For all rowers, the registration cost offers an unlimited number of entries in the regatta. The regatta committee will do its best to develop a draw that will allow every rower the opportunity to compete in multiple events but it cannot guarantee that some entries may not conflict.
The minimum number of participants to host the regatta is approximately 70 participants. The 2015 Eurogames organizing committee is hoping to reach 150 participants.
There will be four boat categories and three divisions:
single (1X) - male and female
double (2X) - male, female, and mixed
quad (4X) - male, female, and mixed
straight four (4-) - male, female, and mixed
Following the success at the 2013 Antwerp Outgames, female rowers will be permitted to race in a male event, up to one less than the entire boat's complement, or in other words, at least one male has to be part of the crew.
Entries will be accepted in ten-year age categories:
18 - 29 years old
30 - 39 years old
40 - 49 years old
50 - 59 years old
60 - 69 years old
70 + years old
if there are too few entries in an age division, the entries will be combined with another age category to save time.
The regatta will offer a lightweight division:
For males, under 72.5 kg
For females, under 59 kg
The regatta will consist of heats, semi-finals, and repechages on Friday, 07 August, and finals will be held on Saturday, 08 August. All events with 6 or fewer entries will be direct to final. Events with more than 6 entries will involve heats on Friday. Events with more than 12 entries will involve semi-finals on Friday.
Review the publish rowing programme: EG2015_rowingprogramme.pdf
Boat rental fees are 25 Euros per seat per event, inclusive. That means that if you qualify for the semi-finals and the finals, you don't have in essence, rerent the boat. This policy now mirrors the policy used at FISA World Masters.
The practice day is included in the rowig registration fee but there may be an additional boat rental fee for the practice.
The GLRF Team has added a discussion forum for the regatta. Find it here.
[update on 25 Jan 2015 - rental fee changed; rowing programme added; race dates updated; regatta registration updated.]
[update on 22 Mar 2015 - rental fee revised again; women in men's races rule added]
It was a role reversal for the GLRF booth at the 2014 Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga. The weekend before in Philadelphia, it was sunny and mild. Shift forward one weekend, and it was overcast, windy, and very very very cold. Climate change? Maybe Hollywood having flexing its media muscle by preparing to debut season 10 of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Who knows.
One of the many welcome attractions at the Head of the Hooch is sun and lots of skin. The GLRF camera managed to capture one brave Abercrombie rower on Friday, stylin' his own version of a Southern Comfort look. But by the end of the day, the mild Friday weather turned cold and rainy. On Saturday, it was wind that proved to be the biggest challenge. Because of conditions on the Tennessee River, all events had to be cancelled for the day without any hope of rescheduling. On Sunday, the beautiful sunshine returned but the cold remained with an early morning low of -1 celsius (30 fahrenheit), and reaching a high of maybe 11 celsius (52 fahrenheit).
As much as the bad weather put a huge dent on the weekend, the enthusiastic rowers from the South, and in particular, Florida, mobbed the GLRF booth, snapping up t-shirts, crazy spandex, and the 2015 Naked Rowing Calendars. Likewise, the Head of the Hooch regatta organizers were gracious, and genuinely happy to have us back. Several stopped by to visit and catch up. Even the county mayor waved and said he was glad we were there. Thanks to all of the booth visitors. Your smiles kept the GLRF Team warm!
Finally, to the group of rowers from the St. Louis Rowing Club who stopped in at the GLRF booth to gossip amongst themselves, thanks for coming by and we hope all of you will join GLRF!
For the second year running, GLRF hosted a booth at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. This marked the third time GLRF has hosted a booth in Philadelphia, and the first time the weather was actually nice. Both Saturday and Sunday featured clear skies and sunshine, and relatively mild temperatures.
The Head of the Schuylkill has a large number of competitors, 5,000+, but many are spread out, either by day of competition or by location. As a result, the vendor area is not as big a focal point as the Head of the Charles. For the GLRF booth, it provided the perfect opportunity for visibility as all the vendors are located in one large, big top tent. Juniors, University, and Elite rowers all walked past the booth, as did the 'celebs' of the Gold Cup, including Sir Steve Redgrave, Mahe Drysdahle, Ondrej Synck, Kjetil Borch, Yohann Rigogne, Kim Crow, Mirka Knapková, Gevvie Stone, and Chantal Achterberg.
The return of the Gold Cup at the Head of the Schuylkill marks a return to prize winning rowing. The winners of the 750m. race vie for cash prizes of $10,000 for first, $5,000 for second, $2,500 for third, and $1,000 for fourth. The race is intended to draw the top talent in single scull racing from around the world.
Not to be missed at the GLRF booth was the official unveiling of the 2015 Naked Rowing Calendars. GLRF is featuring the Dieux de l'Aviron (Gods of Rowing) from France for the mens calendar, and the University of Warwick Women for the womens calendar.
After a busy three days, the GLRF booth was packed and shipped for Chattanooga and the Head of the Hooch.
