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Our news alerts caught this item: rower Spencer Duhm was written up as the youngest gay member of the lastest installment of the CBS show ‘Survivor.’ Now in its 18th season, the show is shot in Brazil where 10 contestants battle it out to see who is the last man or woman remaining. The article says Spencer, who is openly gay, rowed for the University of Florida. He had to drop out of school and off the team (obviously) to compete on Survivor.

Spencer has since returned to Florida and is back in school. No word yet if he has rejoined the rowing team. If anyone can get in contact with Spencer, please tell him we’d love to have him join the GLRF communuty (and do a rower’s perspective interview). Hey Spencer, great smile!
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We just received an email announcing the launch of a new rowing poster design service, Brush Strokes Fine Art Rowing Posters. If your club is planning their upcoming regatta, consider creating a fine art rowing poster for the event. There is nothing more memorable than a framed fine art rowing poster to put on your wall to show your participation. With the advent of the electronic age, the practice of printing rowing posters has gone by the wayside as costs have escalated for design, printing, and distribution. As much as medals or trophys may be interesting, a rowing poster really helps anchor those memories and shows your friends your rowing addiction. A poster also helps build teamwork by allowing the entire crew to sign the poster, forever memorializing your boat.
 
For a limited time, owner Joseph Brin is offering free poster design services to GLRF member’s clubs.
 
Does GLRF get a commission from mentioning this? Nope. We just think it is part of what makes rowing a special sport and what sets it apart from the rest of the sports community.
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GLRF member Karl S. relayed the news that the 10th annual Austin Winter Retreat has been shelved for 2009. Sara Mai Conway, Austin Rowing Club's new Club Manager, indicated in an email to retreat organizers that the club's facilities for the President's Day Weekend had already been booked by three visiting crews which effectively blocked all available launches. In addition, the annual Winter Warrior regatta, scheduled for Saturday, 14 Feb, would be taking up most of the Austin Rowing Club equipment.
 
The Austin Winter Retreat has been held every President's Day weekend since 2000. The event was first organized and run by Row Team Austin, the gay and lesbian rowing squad based out of ARC, and the dominant crew at the 1998 Amsterdam Gay Games. Following the integration of Row Team Austin into the Austin Rowing Club, the event became a profitable staple of the Austin Rowing Club. The retreat routinely hosted rowers (gay and straight) from Texas, Massachusetts, New York, Wisconsin, Washington DC, and California. The three-day event usually began on Thursday evening with a no-host reception at a local bar followed by twice daily on the water training sessions in both sweep and scull categories on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Monday morning, all remaining participants were assigned in two or three boats for a scratch regatta. The mix of social activities and a challenging rowing schedule each day made the event a welcome break for rowers suffering the winter blues in North America.
 
The 2008 Austin Retreat saw one of the largest attendance in the event's nine year history, with over 30 rowers attending the weekend including 8 women. Club members are looking to re-organize the event for 2010. Pictures of the 2008 event can be seen here.
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If you have never experienced the Oartec Rowing Simulator, it is definitely worth the time to give it a go. Many in the rowing community say it is the best land-based replication of the full sweep and scull rowing movement.
 
The machine made its North American debut last year at the Head of the Charles. Since then, it has garnered critical acclaim and gained distrubtion agreements worldwide. What makes the machine so unique is its three-in-one capability to simulate bow side, stroke side, and sculling movements. It is the first machine to offer realistic land-based technical training for rowers and coaches.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubPVig8rWbw
 
The first thing you notice is that the machine is massive. It has LOTS of metal tubing and support. But don’t let that dissuade you from giving it a go. After one stroke, you’ll feel the familiar rowing movement from catch to release. Add some cameras, mirrors, and the guiding hands of a coach, and you’ll be able to feel and comprehend real-time that which you can’t understand in a boat.
 
Australian Matt Roach, the inventor, designer, and owner of Oartec, will be on hand at the Wintech booth at the 2008 Head of the Charles to provide information and give hands-on demonstrations.
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It’S All About The Shoes

By glrfcentral, in News,

We just got an email from Anil Lamba of Ankaa Shoe Exports. If you don’t know the name, you probably know his shoes since they are featured in so many rowing shells. We make mention of this offer not only because it is beneficial to the GLRF community but also because Anil is one of those people whose eyes show pure honesty, acceptance, and absolutely none of that discomfort that some of the other vendors exhibit as they pass the GLRF booth at regattas.
 
He is offering a special promotion price of US$37 per pair, delivered (yes, you read that correctly, shipping included) with a minimum of an order of 8 or more pairs. Now, if you truly want to look fabulous, you can add your club/team logo to the shoes for only US$1 more per pair but the minimum is higher – 24 pairs.
 
This promotion applies to any model and any size, and runs through the end of December, 2008, that is 31 Dec 2008.
 
Given the state of affairs with the US Dollar, many of you will probably want to know what kind of deal can be had for rowers down under, across the pond, below the equator, and all that sort of thing. We’ll give Anil a chance to reply directly on here but you can also email him directly.
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Ah, the things you learn at regattas booths…
 
They’re back, the FISA racing shells. For those whose memories might have faded, FISA started an initiative in the late ’80′s to standardize raching shell hull designs worldwide. The idea was to eliminate ‘variations in performance’ due to various hull shapes and equipment. This was also probably a result of the sliding rigger boat design introduced by Empacher in 1981 which was banned by FISA just three years later, on 01 January 1984, because of the decided speed advantage it gave to all who raced in that boat.
 
The FISA racing shells were developed by the FISA materials commission and were offered to all boat manufacturers. Although the standard was never formally adopted, apparently many boat manufacturers did avail themselves of the designs. Some of the shells built from the mold specifications did in fact earn gold on the world racing circuit. Subsequent manfacturing innovations led to variations in hull design and construction as each boat manufacturer sought to distinguish their brand as the fastest boat. As a result, the FISA shells fell out of favor and disappeared from the brochures.
 
Now Chris Oxner of Mission Rowing fame and H20 Composites, has brought the design back as a way to provide a low cost, comptetive product for North America. Using their state of the art carbon kevlar construction processes, Chris is able to offer a remarkably low cost club racing shell in both the single and double categories.
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A junior’s visit to one of the 2008 GLRF regatta booths has resulted in the first registration from Mexico. The rower asked if they could join, after seeing that Mexico was not on the booth’s posterboard display of GLRF worldwide communities. The rower, from Mexico City, marks the fulfillment of GLRF representation in the North American continent. Mexico now becomes the 27th country in the GLRF worldwide community.
 
Although most rowing is concentrated in and around Mexico City, there are numerous rowing clubs in the Yucatan Peninsula as well as some clubs in the north and east parts of the country. Mexico recently distinguished itself by winning Henley gold at the 2008 Royal Canadian Henley in the Senior B Men’s Pair with a time of 06:32:03 and the Junior B Women’s Single with a time of 08:10:35.
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The five-day event had some amazing competition with a huge number of junior programs from the east and west coasts, as well as collegiate and senior races. There were a number of entries from summer rowing programs, including Thompson Boat Center, Boston Rowing Camp, Mobjack Rowing, Penn AC, Los Gatos Rowing Club, and Milwaukee Rowing Club to name just a few, and of course, some big name senior competitive programs like Potomac Boat Club, and Community Rowing.
 
This is the regatta to be at in terms of energy: sixteen rowing vendors and a great layout with lots of foot traffic: JL Racing , Rubini Jewelry , Wintech Racing Boats , Hudson Boat Works , Sykes Racing North America , Empacher North America , Vespoli Racing Boats , Kaschper Racing Shells , Nielsen Kellerman Electronics (the Cox Box company) , Connect-A-Dock , The Rowers Edge , Regatta Sport , USRowing , Row Balance , Sport Graphics , and Klinger Engineering Boat and Trailer Repair . The USRowing staff should be awarded the “Golden Oar” for an amazingly well organized, totally easy regatta. All vendors’ spaces were marked upon our arrival, the tables and chairs we reserved were ready, and the Camden Country Parks department was soooooooo supportive, including providing a water truck every day to help control the dust.
 
The weather was hot, hot, and hotter, with some humidity mixed in for extra measure. The GLRF booth had the best vendor geography, in terms of location, view, and shade. The booth was positioned under the overhang of a huge tree so the shade was wonderful. The daily wind gusts made our many paper displays and brochures into flying objects that needed continuous recovery.
 
We saw some familiar faces and GLRF members: Tom C. from Rhode Island swung by everyday to say hi, and gay-friendly straight guy Matt from Chicago’s Lincoln Park Boat Club swung by to say hello – he won a silver in his double competition, of course … (ahem, some of us have been personally left in the wake of ‘Mr. Filippi Flash’ at the Chicago Sprints in 2006…). We had a number of new faces stop by the booth and look around, including two guys (juniors) who held hands inside the booth (but … not outside the booth). They were doubles partners as well as supposedly bf’s. Were they gay or just yanking our chain? Who knows but they were both super nice, bought some GLRF gear, and were quite the amazing ‘super rowers,’ competing in singles, doubles, and quads, sometimes racing the 2,000-meter course three times in one day. They both went home with some clinkage around their necks. We had a lot of girls stop by the booth some of whom shyly inquired about what GLRF was all about, and perhaps, maybe, and we are so hoping, a registration will be forthcoming from Mexico.
 
Tom Gallagher from Sykes Racing North America was a few booths down so we chatted everyday, when it got quiet. He unloaded a Sykes quad rental for the Southwest Development Camp, and rigged it with the Sykes “quick disconnect” riggers . Wow, wow, wow. So quick: click, click, and rigged. We cannot believe every club in the country doesn’t opt for this configuration. With quick disconnect riggers, you can switch out a quad to a coxless four in a blink of an eye (Tom says it takes less than three minutes), and the same with a double/pair combination. Essentially, you get two boats for the price of one. In addition, you can stack more boats in a tight racking environment by eliminating the rigging. We helped unload the DC Strokes Rowing Club’s latest acquisition, a Sykes split eight. The boat just came off of a long-term loan but you wouldn’t know it. The reconditioned boat just gleamed and looked absolutely new. The boat was transferred to one of the two massive Klinger Engineering boat trailers that was loaded with newly repaired boats headed out for delivery.
 
Jeff McIntyre of Hudson Boat Works, was our leftside neighbor for the duration of the regatta. We can now recite all the advantages to a Hudson boat and hull design in our sleep. Jeff seemed super busy helping kids and their parents demo some of the Hudson singles – it seems that parents are now buying their kids brand new singles to row in high school. Geez, wouldn’t that have been nice back in the day….?!
 
Speaking of sculling, it was hard not to notice some of the lean junior bods parading past the booth, stripped to the waist in their uni’s due to the heat. Whoah, relax there incensed parents… we’re not turning lecherous, just observing. Most of the boys were typically built: lean, almost skinny thin, but some showed the signs of sweep rowing at an early age and a predisposition to musculoskeletal development problems. One arm was built, almost bulky, while the other was so thin that it appeared to be almost atrophied. We observed one rower with a defined, v-shaped torso, more muscular than most junior rowers for his age, walk past. His lats were so disfigured it was almost shocking: the left side was normal while the right side looked like it had implants it was so big. The Europeans seem to have it right: no sweep rowing until age 17. One father who stopped by the booth commented that his son was already enduring musculoskeletal problems after his son’s coach had switched him from port to starboard. Within two weeks, he was in to see the doctor with major body problems. A rowing rule change from sweep to scull under a certain age would have profound implications to the United States rowing communities’ under18 racing circuit, the junior club programs and their equipment investments. Still, it is something to think about. We know that Xeno Muller likes to start his kids in sculling and from the talk at this regatta, the collegiate coaches definitely favor juniors with a sculling background.
 
Roger, Rob, and Tyler from Klinger Engineering were our rightside neighbors for the regatta. We only saw them for the last couple of days but you couldn’t ask for a nicer group of guys. It’s always nice when the rowing community doesn’t blink an eye when they see the GLRF booth. It’s called acceptance .
 
Good news about the new Community Rowing Inc. (CRI) boathouse in Boston. We talked to several CRI parents, one of whom serves on the board, and the word is that the new boathouse will celebrate its grand opening at the 2008 Head of the Charles in October.
 
Laura from JL Racing was in the booth directly facing us so we had some fun chatting about California rowing, the GLRF penchant for listening to Broadway show tunes on Sirius Satellite radio while we unloaded each day, and reviewing pics of her gorgeous (very blond!) male Rhodesian Ridgeback dog. Her husband runs a development camp out of Lake Natoma east of Sacramento, mainly for juniors. Given the number of GLRF members in California, Oregon, and Washington, maybe we should set up a west coast rowing clinic there, just for women, in the winter?
 
When we arrived at 6:45 am on Sunday morning to set up, the main ‘big top’ tent just across from us had all the tables arranged in rings of inner and outer circles for the 11 am College Fair. Nothing could have prepared us for the crowd of parents and their “rising senior” juniors that gathered for the recruiting session. A rising senior is defined as a junior rower preparing for their final year in high school (secondary school). The event, sponsored by USRowing, was packed. The parents and their kids lined up in front of the GLRF booth and then stretched back for a good city block, allowing everyone to notice the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation booth as they awaited their turn for admission into the tent. One benefit to this positioning was that the coaches had a chance to observe the GLRF booth. It is amazing how youthful, attractive, and very athletic all these recruiting coaches appeared. Ahhh marketing! Let’s hope our coaches’ membership category sees an up tick ! http://glrf.info/leblogglrf/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif
 
Oh, didn’t you know? We now offer four categories of GLRF membership: rowers, coxies, coaches, and race officials.
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It’s that season again, when the straight and gay media go crazy over ‘out’ Olympic athletes. They are heralded for their courage in the face of public and team scrutiny. They are lauded for their public statements criticizing public officials or public policy. When a national rowing team roster was announced recently, we spotted a couple of familiar names. Undoubtedly there are more ‘family-iar’ rowers, on many teams around the world. Should we be especially proud of gay and lesbian Olympic rowers? The quick answer might be yes, because these athletes supposedly have had to endure super closeted lives, hiding their feelings and enduring the agony of living a lie. The real answer is that in today’s sports environment, most everyone on the team probably already knows and doesn’t care. The real focus is on winning, something that every athlete has had to prove every day and every hour for months if not years. The agony for many rowers, gay and straight, came in the last six months, when the Olympic lineups for each country’s rowing team were announced. For those who didn’t make the cut, thoughts of could have, should have, and would have flash through their minds as they compare and measure themselves against others and wonder why they weren’t selected. We doubt very much that being gay or lesbian is at the forefront of those thoughts.
 
As the rowers ramp up for the Olympics in these final days, they’re rowing upwards of 60,000 meters a day, and they are on the water three times a day. The last thing they are thinking about is their own sexual orientation or someone else’s. Their thoughts are a mixture of self-criticism, team criticism, extreme body awareness, hunger, thirst, and sleep.
 
These rowers, selected or not, have sacrificed their lives, their families, their relationships, and their careers for a chance to win. If you’re a rower, you know the hours of erg time invested, the endless pieces on the water in freezing rain and howling wind, and the physical pain to push harder in the last 500 meters on the course. Lets give everyone the same attention, the same respect, and the same awe for their Olympic orientation.
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Le Var; He’s an Italian rower but lives in France and when he clicked “submit,” he became GLRF member number 700. The GLRF membership continues to grow as an international community with new members joining from Europe, Australia, and North America. Europe now accounts for 24% of the GLRF worldwide membership.
 
The continued growth of GLRF is cause for celebration but our conservative estimate for a realistic worldwide community is 6,000 members. As the membership roster continues to grow, it will help to show the the size and scope of the worldwide gay and lesbian rowing community.

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