For the last year I’ve suspended my writing for several good reasons. Firstly, I was in Law school and felt no compulsion to read or write anymore than I already had to for school. Secondly, I was doing nothing exciting in rowing other than trying to stay fit enough through first year law school to have a shot at the team in the summer. I guess that was just a couple reasons, but that’s enough, I don’t need to go any farther.

Now though, I have returned to a training center, to the active sedentary lifestyle of an athlete, and to wondering what I could possibly do here in London, Ontario to entertain myself.

(Oh yeah, I’m on starboard now)

My re debut has been nothing short of average. I teamed up in the pair with Brendan Hodge, a former Harvard rower and U23 athlete in 2005, and a man who thought he quit rowing 5 years ago. It all started at Rowing in the City last December where we got to talking about rowing a pair. So after he lost 20lbs and started erging and I decided to take shit seriously again, we got this going in February. We got absolutely murdered in our first race by the U23 duo of Max and Evan. Over time we slowly reduced the amount they would destroy us by in subsequent meet ups to the point where my love of headwinds got the better of them in the semi of the eastern trials. They were clearly not ok with that because they made sure to beat us down in the final on route to taking the win, but hey, it’s a start. Brendan had about 4 months rowing at the point to make up for his 5-year hiatus where he became a lawyer and got fat. Well not entirely, he was the captain of Lawson Lundell’s (his firms) cycling team and on our rides through the Vancouver mountains it was evident he was a far better cycler than I.

Life is much different in London than Victoria. There are the heavyweight women around, which is new, normally the only girls you see in Victoria are the ones at the back of the P22 not pulling (Not referring to Obee and Lj here). So far I have to say I like the environment. I feel more in control of my training and getting the most out of myself. I get breakfast for $1.25 and my rent is the same but the place I live in is over twice the size. I may have been demoted in my carding level but hell, I feel richer in London for some reason; west coast reality is just out of control.

The game now is to just get race ready for the summer and re adjust my sleep schedule. I’ve gone from 2am-10pm to the shock of getting up at 6am again. My former pair partner (Jensen) gave me some great words of encouragement before he retired last year. He said, “ Well, now is your chance to actually prove you don’t suck and that I just didn’t pull you down the course the whole time.”

Words to live by.

DISCLAIMER: This article is not about the current state of athletes at the Olympics nor an accurate representation of the state of rowing in Canada. It is purely my opinion based on my observations and recommunicating the sentiments of other athletes at all levels of the sport of whom I’ve spoken with. There really is no going back after this one I guess.

This weekend was the first time in four years that I have raced domestically during the summer, and it highlighted a very deep concern. Being back in Ontario and becoming involved with the rowing scene here, one question constantly looms: what went wrong with the lightweights and what is being done? I don’t have any answers for what is being done, but looking around now I may have my own thoughts for what has gone so wrong.

My biggest issue has been the introduction of the RADAR program being forced upon the athletes. RADAR was designed as a means to help identify future rowing talent and rank current athletes. The major issue is that of the 7 components, 75% of the ranking score is derived from erg (rowing machine) tests and only one part of the scoring system comes from on-water performance. Plus, racing in a head wind for the on water component can severally impair your score because your time will be slower and therefore your overall rank lower.

So, athletes are not rewarded for being exceptional boat movers but for just being exceptionally strong. I’m a major advocate for good ergs correlating to boat speed, but this system strongly discourages athletes who don’t preform well on the erg immediately from continuing in the sport. Funding and talent identification is strictly targeted towards these numbers. For heavyweights, this is less of an issue because size can help carry you through on an erg; however, for lightweights it can take years upon years of cardio work to optimize your strength and size to pull strong ergs. RADAR should simply be an analytical tool for collecting data, not a means for selection and promotion through the sport. That is why we compete on the water for races on the water, not on the erg for races on the water.

The on-water ranking goes a step further to impede the lightweights in Canada. The Gold medal standards (GMS) do not reflect equally across boat classes. Here is how the chart was devised for the first time in 2006. All the heavyweight world record times from that year were sped up by one second to determine the heavyweight men’s GMS’. For the lightweights, a comparison between the two Olympic boat classes (the fours) showed that the lightweight four time was 99.2% of the heavyweight four time. The remaining times for lightweight boat classes were then interpolated to go 99.2% of their respective heavyweight classes. Over the years, they have been subjectively adjusted by a second here or there. Nonetheless, you get things like the lightweight pair GMS being 8 seconds faster than the current world record and no one questioning it (6:18 GMS compared to 6:26 WR).

Now when boats are ranked to be sent to the world championships and world cups or even domestically at clubs, lightweight boats, aside from the Olympic class ones, would typically be 2% lower on ranking and most likely looked at as slow. The obvious question: why not just do the same thing for all the boat classes that was done for the heavyweight times? The reason why this is such a massive problem is that this interpolation of times assumes power (wattage) is a linear measure when in fact it is exponential. Simplified, this means that as the speed increases, it takes increasingly higher wattages to make marginal increases in boat speed. For example, going from a 2:00 split to 1:55 takes 28 watts, but going from a 1:40 split to 1:35 takes 58 watts. It’s still 5 seconds, but the amount of power it takes is completely different. So, two heavyweights that can achieve a max power of over 1000 watts will have an easier time sustaining their projected 1:33.5 split than two lightweights who can only achieve 850 watts to reach their target of 1:34.5 on the GMS (world record split is 1:36.5 for lightweights). Again, lightweights are discouraged from continuing in the system because they are earlier on identifying themselves as weaker than their heavyweight counterparts.

The results of this program are incredibly evident; erg scores in Canada have substantially improved. Talent is being identified but more athletes are being cast aside. It is still concerning, though, that on the water, crews south of the border are increasingly winning races at Canadian Henley, our top domestic regatta. On a purely subjective basis, I can only say that the correlation is not moving uniformly. Developing athletes should regard their merits from their results at Canadian Henley, not the borage of off water erg tests that follow the week after, which, should be reserved for relaxing and unwinding. Good rowing is not being as strongly encouraged as raw power, and the numbers blind us. Since the introduction of the program, the athlete pool at the men’s center has massively decreased. There has not been an U23 men’s eight since 2009; in 2008, there were over 18 lightweights at the center (compared to the constantly in-flux 10 through the whole quadrennial now); and, the number of up and coming athletes that have left is upsetting. Had RADAR existed in 2008 I would have never been allowed to attend the training center that summer. Still, though, in 2008 after winning a National Championship, a Canadian university title, making my first national team, and captaining my university to its first provincial title in years, I was denied funding because of my erg scores. I didn’t receive any funding until 2010 and now it’s under scrutiny for not being at the center for the summer after being denied my attempt at Olympic qualification.

As a subjective athlete I have seen more of Own the Podium’s funding gone towards administration devised for development programs than directly to the athletes themselves, a process that I would agree with if it were demonstrating that it was working properly. As athletes, the camps we go on, the hotels we stay at, and the transportation over seas hasn’t changed too much. We do get food at the lake now, though, but then again we did take a mandatory cut in our TCASP funding for that. I’ve also lost count at the number of times I’ve heard we don’t have enough money to hire a head lightweight coach

Being on the Ontario circuit again, the scene has indeed seemed to be down sized. In my earlier years, guys bounced between the center and domestic racing all year. I got to see the standard the center produced and I knew what I had to aspire to. Now with this ‘be at a center year round or you’re not training’ ideology, we are restricted to Victoria while other national team hopefuls are unwilling to make the commitment to move. They are seemingly discouraged to drop their lives simply to row. Who would blame them? Four years at welfare level funding with no opportunity for sponsorships and forcefully bottle necked in one location is really not convincing athletes to give up a career for that life. So I have said good-bye to some great athletes and good friends who couldn’t justify doing that to their futures.

The final factor is that no one ever sees the national team in Canada. In almost every other nation, national team athletes race in several of their own country’s club races. They race for their home clubs and connect with the local rowing community. Rowers in Canada want to know more about us, but they don’t get any opportunities. Being at Argo’s has affirmed that thought again, and I can see it in one particular pair at the club.

There are two juniors here rowing a pair, Sam and Luke, and I have to say those two are ballsy athletes; they love beating Ryan and myself. Watching them take off and do whatever it takes to stick out in front of us is motivating. Those two just want to win and they base their standard off of ours and in turn we talk, and teach, and learn from each other. The same way I learned from guys like Morgan Jarvis when he left the center in 2005 and rowed with me at Queens, or Simon Gowdy who did the same after winning a bronze in the U23 lm4- in 2004. Will Crothers even used to show up and row with the Queen’s heavy men before leaving for Washington in the fall. We don’t leave the center now, even for a few months, so you don’t see us anymore.

How do we go forward? That is not my place to discuss, my solutions stem from my opinions. Just because I say these things does not mean I am right by any means. It’s similar to how I looked at the pair I rowed in before making the switch to the Hudson: you can know everything about rowing to go forward and build the perfect hull, but sitting in it just once, you would realize some very obvious mistakes. On the other hand, if you never sat on the inside, you’d probably always just assume it was perfect.

When Ryan and I decided to actually commit to this pair endeavor we realized quickly that we had a limited set of options available for equipment. I then reached out to Jon Beare (2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist in the lwt 4 and now. . West coast Hudson rep), to see what options could be available.


I went with Hudson first because without a doubt in my mind the classic hull I’ve raced in for the last two years is the best pair I’ve ever spent time training and racing in. Prior to that my admiration belonged to this amazing Empacher pair I had the privilege of racing in for my first National title in 2008. I know I can’t be to bias in my decision given that Scott Frandsen and Dave Calder were given an array of pairs to choose from and still settled on their Hudson as well.

(Scott and Dave leading the pack)

My original hope was to be able to grab a boat from the women’s training center in London after they left for the Olympics. However, Hudson did me one better and just gave me a brand new boat. The only difference was, I would be racing the S.32 Hammer Head Hull instead of the C.31 classic, which, I’ve come to love so much.

(Matt and I in Erba taking the Classic out, the difference are really not apparent in this photo)

My original reaction was a mixture of joy and concern. I shouldn’t be picky when someone offers me a brand new boat no questions asked but I wanted that classic so much that even a new hull just didn’t feel the same. Also, this would be an unfamiliar boat with a very different design that I knew nothing about. Just because a lot of hydrodynamic research and testing went into this hull doesn’t necessarily mean that I would be willing to accept it as a superior successor or even an equal compliment. The Stampfli we trained in prior to this hull would have gone through a similar process and although the hull was great, the tracks were too narrow and stabbed the back of our legs; an oversight that hydro dynamics can’t account for.

(The staple hook in the Hammerhead hulls)

So, I went in to this hull understanding that it would be better than anything I would have the option to row in but not confident it would surpass the Classic. There were several key differences. For one, the hull itself is considerably longer on both ends (just shy of a quad in length), the bow cuts off at a rather sharp angle instead of a gradual curve to a point. The cockpit though, was through and through the same as the classic. Sitting in the boat I couldn’t be more comfortable, the tracks are perfectly spaced, the seats and the slides move silently, and the riggers and pins allow for a strong connection and lock through the stroke. This was expected, it was the way the hull would travel through the water I was unsure of.

(Shots of the stern and bow of the boat and just how far out they stretch)

Jon informed me that the extra length on both ends would reduce the amount the hull pitched as our weight shifted from catch to finish. He added that we would really start to notice the gains from this as the rates started to climb.

The first thing we noticed was how much less the stern swayed. Tracking the stern is key for identifying what is happening in a pair. The less it moves side to side from catch to finish the straighter and faster the boat will travel down the course. The tip of the stern rarely swayed compared to some of the other boats we spent time in. Maybe it’s because we started rowing better together but Id like to believe that it was the boat that allowed us to do that. In the other boats we couldn’t get our bodies to swing and move comfortably, or it was difficult to rig them easily to achieve that comfort. The oars just seemed to connect better in the water with the S.32 and that contributed to the comfort and freedom we felt and as a result, again the strokes were more linear and easier to replicate.

When we finally took the boat up to pace it felt very light and effortless, even though we weren’t rowing our best (I’ve just made the switch to starboard and am sitting in the bow -a different feel from being on port in stroke- and Ryan is still coming back after a 2 year hiatus). Once we started to establish a rhythm the boat felt even lighter and it was easier to pick up the speed when we wanted it. We are still a little inconsistent but we managed to put down four decent 1500m pieces this week and with 3 weeks to go I’m sure we will be fine to take on the heavyweights.

I did really have my doubts about this boat, I’ve been somewhat unsure of the motives behind these longer hulls and seeing that no one else has made this transition in hull design I was skeptical of Hudson trying to reinvent the wheel. Besides, in my mind, the classic was perfect, why change anything? However, from the first row this boat has not disappointed and it is still resting on par with the Classic. Time and a few races will tell what this new design means but so far I can say it will be the crews fault before it’s the boat- it is a very well designed hull.

In my other life, Konekt is up and running, here’s a view of how this same post is displayed and organized on konekt. konekt.me/rares,crisan

**UPDATE**
We did take this boat out for a spin at the Ontario Championships and were edged out in the heavyweight pair by a narrow 0.7seconds in the last 4 strokes of the race. Overall can’t complain, we did have a few obstacles namely:
1) We are lightweights
2) Ryan laid down his first 2k in 3 years
3) I’ve done my first race on Starboard in 4 years
4) We had a minor headwind to contend with

So I feel we are well on track for where we’re heading. My conclusion is that this boat is fast, it moves incredibly well at rate and it is very very responsive in a race. I couldn’t be happier to be in this boat right now. Besides, the other crew was in the exact same hull as us. Results Here

Months have passed since I last wrote because for months I’ve rewritten this piece several times over. I needed time to sort my thoughts and to refrain from allowing anger or frustration to drive the tone. Though at this point, it is blatantly apparent the lightweight four did not attend the qualifier and therefore did not have an opportunity to try for the Olympics. The circumstances that led to that decision we’re obviously not unanimously agreed upon, however, discussing them at this point is irrelevant. The difficulty is that myself, and several other athletes, will end 2012 without any closure. There is a reason someone said ‘It is better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all’. Sometimes it seems we were all smarter in grade one.

For me, the search for closure began immediately. I left Victoria as the team departed for the Lucerne World Cup; Lucerne is without a doubt my favorite course and it was where I stood on an international podium for the first time. My last row was memorable too as it was in the Men’s eight given that Robbie Gibson was a little sick that weekend. After I flew in an empacher for a morning, I hopped in my car and attempted to beat google maps Vancouver to Toronto estimated drive time. It was 44hours, I unfortunately took 46 hours – although not bad covering 4,205km in under 2 days. That’s my personality though, I’m impatient, and, when I target objectives, I tend to tackle them in rather unconventional ways.

Arriving in Toronto I revisited my old programming skills as I partnered with two other friends from University to start konekt.me. I immersed myself in the work as a distraction from rowing. Never able to do anything in moderation I found I was putting in excessive hours in order to attempt to launch konekt.me before the olympics so that I had my own event to celebrate in August, and I’m happy to be on track for that.

Now the most interesting turning point for me was when I found myself out at 5:30am on lake Ontario catching the sunrise for the first time in a rowing shell since University. I am not finished with rowing by any means but I told myself that I wouldn’t touch the water this summer, especially not at 5:30am. However, the coaches and athletes at the Argonaut Rowing Club have rekindled what it means to row simply out of love. The community is what made the difference and being in such a positive environment has now made it effortless to find myself on the water everyday.

I’ve teamed up now with a former crew mate (from U23‘s in 2009) and one of my best friends Ryan Meyers to tackle the Championship Men’s Pair at the Canadian Henley Regatta. As two lightweights – and one of us who hasn’t race since 2009 – it should be an interesting challenge. I do have to thank Hudson Boat Works for supplying us with a new pair to race in as well as the Don Rowing Club of Mississauga for lending me an ergo for my office downtown. The DRC is my home club and where I started everything, however geography has played the unfortunate decision maker as to where I would be racing from the summer. Although I can’t have many regrets – Argo’s has been amazing.

With all these factors in place I hope to end August with some piece of mind as I gather myself for the next 4 years. I also wish my teammates the best in London. Finally, I’m glad to have returned to my writing and I look forward to chronicling life as an entrepreneur and athlete.

A video I made for Canfund.

Canfund is a non profit organization that raises money to help Canadian Athletes reach their Olympic Dreams. Go to www.canadianathletesnow.ca to find out how you can help.

A very familiar Mexican presence has returned to Elk Lake this week. Though I’m glad to see Saul, and so is the majority of the VTC, it’s at the same time not under the best circumstances as he was unable to split the Mexican lwt double for an Olympic bid. He is a very quick sculler – a Canadian National Champion –, which he demonstrated on his first around the lake time trial this week. However, he was never granted the opportunity to have a direct challenge against the duo. Sometimes doubles are just like that, I guess.

As for the Canadian lightweights, the lake has quieted down substantially. Spracklen’s group has left for Sacramento and somehow managed to take our coach with them, leaving us essentially without coach for the next two weeks. Not that it bothers any of us; we’re more than capable of training on our own. In fact, it’s been quite nice to have so much calm flat water uninterrupted by coach boat wash and engine noises.

There have also been some interesting responses to the fact that we have been testing on Sliders. I find it rather humorous that instead of looking at them as a valuable tool and progressive asset to training they are being labeled as essentially a mask for speed. Rumours are bouncing around that they remove anywhere from 10-15 seconds on a 2k and 2-3 splits on a 6k. We have been training on both stationary ergs and sliders in order to get an evaluation of what they do. It seems that yes you will go faster on a 2k, by about one split or 4-5 seconds, but over 6k it varies from person to person. Some see no difference, some see more speed by about 1 split again, and others even go slower over 6k. The fact is that the sliders allow you to simulate the feel of rate on an erg similar to the feel of rate in a boat. Because you can rate higher, you can keep the flywheel light and turning over. Therefore, if you were to hold the same rate, your score would essentially be the same, but if you were to take advantage of the rate as you would on the water, you would typically see gains. I finished off a long 30 min ladder (rates 16-32) this week with a 6:28 in the final 2k of that piece on stationary erg after going 6:10 on sliders for an all-out 2k the previous week. The identical workout on sliders the week prior to the erg test yielded essentially the same results.

(Kenny Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to **** with)

Don’t get the reference? that’s ok, neither does he – but to explain watch this

The past two weeks have been quite eventful which is highly unusual for winter training. The lightweights took to some erg testing whilst the coaches were all off to the Rowing Canada coaches conference and AGM. Lactate testing kicked off Monday, which I would say was productive given that I was able to bleed straight through four steps without needing to be stabbed again with a needle. I’m typically the opposite of a hemophiliac as I need to be pricked for blood each subsequent step. Despite driving in straight from Vancouver due to ferry cancellations the previous night, I had my best test clearing 480 watts on the steps to max pretty comfortably, and managing to dabble in the 500+ watt range at the end of the test.

Wednesday followed suit with some very positive 6k ergo tests. A standard had been set for us of 19:51 and four of us were able to go 19:33, 19:36, 19:48 and 19:51. Likewise on friday a 2k standard of 6:10 was placed before us and once again four of us managed 6:04, 6:07, 6:08 , and 6:10. Although before everyone starts to think that the Canadian lightweights are going to produce a Henrik Stephensen I do have to include the fact that these test were done on sliders. Regardless those are some very positive tests with still another round to go in late March.

In reference to the reintegration I had been hinting at in my previous writing we had indeed joined in with Mike Spracklen’s group for some more competitive training. I have a very high degree of respect for Mike as a coach and always appreciate the opportunity to have a positive relationship with him and his group of athletes. I still do have my reservations about low rate side by side training against heavyweights, however I think our group of lightweights is capable of taking away all the positives we need from those types of workouts. The other benefit has been returning to Shawnigan lake on Thursdays. We took to building a hybrid lightweight 8 ( 5 lightweights + 3 heavyweights) to “place pressure” on the budding Olympic eight to be. The pressure, was the order to stay in front of the heavy eight at all costs over the multiple 7km runs. While the fatty eight paddled on down at the prescribed rate of 22 our efforts had us somewhere in the 26 range for a majority of the day. By the third session of 14km all out stretches our boat had finally hit the wall. It was long overdue I think though, with over 45km covered on the day at that point at an highly exerted effort, I feel it was beyond commendable that we all held on until the last 2.5km of the final piece.

With so many hurdles and obstacles being cleared all that remains is demonstrating there exists a lightweight four with Olympic potential. This has been a very hard month and I don’t believe the fatigue will alleviate in the coming months. Normally I find time to work and keep myself preoccupied around rowing but it has become increasingly difficult lately. My brain has seemingly ground to a halt and simple cognitive tasks now require twice the focus. However, if it was easy then the rewards of hard work just wouldn’t feel the same.

Lately my most recent memory when approaching the dock is having just left it. An all too familiar schedule has supplanted the old one and now its eat sleep and row. So why the change? It’s a pandora’s box of discussion – that has some familiar faces in our group – that I don’t want to open. Mike Spracklen’s group is in Sacramento working on tans and I guess doing some rowing while the lwt women remain to spend some time floating between ice sheets with us.

I don’t mind much training at 7:30, 11 and 3, I’ve done it before. However, I’m not too sure what direction all these changes are heading towards. Presently there are two lwt camps, a sculling group under Mike and a sweep group under Kenny. It seems that these two worlds are being set up to invariably collide in some way. Whether we will all be amalgamated in to some symbiotic program or if it will be a collaborative effort, I have no idea. Whatever is going on one thing is for sure and that is something is changing.

Im not worried really just speculative more than anything. I’m very content with how the winter has been progressing and presently enjoy Lindsay Jennerich’s expletive outburst each time she comes across some ice, or snow, or wind, or cold, or wash, or anything really. I have to say, erging with them has let me know what it’s like to be Conlin McCabe or Malcolm Howard, and finish 3 mins before everyone else.

Also for any Spracklen Alumni, here’s a twitter account that should be quite nostalgic. Not sure who’s writing it but it’s quite on point. https://twitter.com/#!/mikespracklen1

Christmas break is more of an exercise in efficiency then an actual break. For the most part, I’m pretty sure I spent most of the break in a European time zone with my erratic sleep schedule. Thankfully, my home club, the Don Rowing Club, is always good about lending me an erg over the Christmas break. This way I can get everything I need to done while being able to cut out any travel time.

There isn’t really much to discuss on what happened over the break. Christmas for me, is spent running all around the GTA seeing friends and family. This is a good time to just forget about rowing and remind myself what the real world is like. While I was back, I was asked to speak to the juniors at the Don Rowing Club on what lead me to where I am now from starting out in the same place they are now. One asked me who my sporting hero was and so since I don’t have much else to discuss I thought I’d share that.

For the longest time I couldn’t say I had an identifiable sporting hero. I’ve been asked this question several times but it has always been difficult for me to consistently name a single individual. The reason being that there are many qualities I admire in several different athletes such that it was constantly changing. However recently that has changed.

I’ve always been an avid fan of formula one being brought into the sport by Schumacher’s impressive run of championship titles in the early 2000’s. Though he was a great at the time for me, there was always this insistence on Aryton Senna being the penultimate driver. Though I understood his accomplishments made him impressive, I never completely grasped what he possessed that would surpass 7 Championship titles. A few years back a movie was made about him simply titled Senna. That film gave me the introspective look into more than his ability, but his character.

Senna embodied entirely everything that I looked up to in a person and an athlete. His passion for the sport was beyond palpable, it was a part of him both physically and emotionally. He would suffer numerous shortcomings, setbacks and even defeats brought about by his own ignorance and in so demonstrating his lack of invincibility. However, he learned and improved and would go on to claim 3 Championship titles before his career was cut short. Senna had this ruthless competitive nature and bewildering talent yet somehow he was humble and compassionate. He was both sides of the extremes and a man who believed he had a god given right to win. His death was almost poetic summary in itself of his life competing in sport. In Imola in 1994 after securing pole position in an unreliable car he would lead the race for several laps before his car broke off the track slamming into a concrete wall at full speed. In first all the way, even in death he seemed to retain first.

The movie was an incredible storey about an individual I’ve come to respect for all his good and bad qualities. He was someone that understood the dream while still remaining a truly remarkable human being in the process. Below is a clip that Top Gear put together when the movie came out but I suggest watching it to get a complete understanding for who Senna was.

Last week before Christmas break, so not much really new happening. I fly back to the other side of the country so I spend training mostly in my basement with an erg.

Thought I would just put a video I was playing around with of one of our weight sessions last week. Our weights tend to focus around speed and volume, so we do sets of 60-100secs trying to keep the speed over 1m/s. Nothing nearly as bad as the 6min squat test and bench pull test.

Good times though.