Borrowed from the KCSBC website...
Introduction
Types of competitionBoat ClassificationBoat PlansFood for RowingBlade ColoursGlossary
Welcome to the band of parents and old boys who frequently find themselves standing, shivering and soaked, by some draughty water edge whilst their offspring exhaust themselves hitting the water with a stick while sitting in a floating tub!
More (but not entirely) seriously though, this guide makes an attempt to answer those questions which we, when we first became involved with rowing wanted to ask and couldn't/didn't because we did not know what to ask or of whom to ask it.
Like all specialised activities in which the human race indulges, rowing has developed its own jargon, which is quite impenetrable to those not in the know. In this way, the rowers and their true followers are able, in a flash, to recognise the interlopers and those whose opinions count for naught. This guide hopes to introduce you to the secret language of the rowers and, as a consequence, enable you to understand what your son is trying to tell you and enjoy watching what he is doing.
It also attempts to enhance your ability to find the various venues at which the rowers from the school habitually compete and to understand the codes that appear in the programmes. Most supporters will remember attending their first big event and, having discovered where the programmes were being sold, opened it to be confronted by a load of hieroglyphics which did nothing to assist them in finding out which boat was to contain the object of their attention.
What are they doing? Rowing or Sculling?
The first thing to learn is that these two activities, whilst closely related, are not the same. The distinction between the two is determined by the number of oars (known to the initiated as BLADES) that each crew member sets out with.
If each person in the boat has one oar, then they are Rowing.
If they have two oars, they are Sculling.
It stands to reason that if there is only one person in the boat then they must be sculling and should have two oars. (It will be observed that the loss of one oar by a single sculler invariably results in them getting wet)!
