Coordinated Commands

“NO, MAGGIE!!”

Hilarious!  My mind is thinking, "There's NO way I will remember all the steps!"  

*Slide knees up  *Arms stretched forward   *Oars with blue down & white up  *Slide back on the seat (with little wheels) *At the same time pull the oars in the water  *Rotate the wrists to bring the oars parallel to water  *Repeat on command



“MAGGIE! Skul up!”

Gerd is the coach for the crew lesson.  He speaks some English, mostly German and Danish.  He remembers my name, though. (ARGH!)  

Gesche, Gerhardt and I are all on the crew boat for the first time.  None of us know what to do and couldn’t believe he wanted to take US out on the water for our lesson.  Rookies. Green Horns!

Fortunately I have had experience in water, in boats and rowing.  It helped a tiny bit.  The technique I used rowing alone did not help.   I was use to digging the oars into the water to propel forward.  With the very long oars, in crew, the oar is only to skim the top part of the water, NOT dig in.  

A few times I used digging maneuvers and I thought I was going to tip us all into the water.  Scary.  It’s so difficult to get the oar back out of the water when it’s whole length is slid into the water. It feels impossible.  They’re light and long.  Like an arrow being shot into the water.



Eventually, I imagined I had the rhythm right. I was synchronizing my strokes with Gerhard and Gesche and with the vocal commands of Gerd.

Suddenly, when my ego got the best of me and I told myself, “You’re a  master”,  my seat came off the end of the rail.  How to explain to the teacher?  What words do I use?  The teacher is at the other end of the crew boat.  I start laughing and explain to Gesche what happened.  (she's two seats away from me and facing forward, she can't see so I have to explain in order for her to get a picture of what happened)

While trying not to tip the boat (not an easy feat) I listened to directions in Danish and English on how to put it back on its track. I want to remind you I have two very, very long oars that need to stay above the water, too.  If they dip into the water the balance of everything is off.  At this point I don’t have the luxury of feeling like an idiot.  I have to focus and keep us all from falling into the sea.

The real accomplishment for me was not to panic.  

All the steps seemed so foreign.  But, I think putting us out on the water was a good tactic.  We had no choice but to listen, respond and use our instincts to keep coordinated in our strokes.  

Soon Gehrt was saying, “MAGGIE!  RELAX!”  That was the funniest command of all.  My laugh carried across the water when I heard him tell me to relax. I knew we all would somehow end up back at the dock safely, if I could just relax. 

We arrived at the dock with dusk descending on the sea.  Getting out of the boat was another learning curve, but we all got our land-legs back.  A bit shaky, but dry.


When we lifted the boat out of the water Gesche noticed my seat back on the track backwards!  Another round of laughter!

Gerd and Me After the Adventure

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