FEATURE Sports Complex Oar Well: Lesbian and Gay Rowers on Course Jim Provenzano | March 30, 2004 Members of the San Francisco Bay Blades Rowing Club during one of their weekly training sessions. Courtesy San Francisco Bay Blades Gliding across lakes and rivers, crew teams around the country are recruiting lesbian and gay rowers, with the help of the recently formed Gay and Lesbian Rowing Federation. "People are signing up from Florida, Michigan, even Canberra," said Brian Todd, GLRF's president. An umbrella organization representing the interests of gay and lesbian rowers worldwide, the GLRF's mission is to provide a sense of community, to promote the sport of rowing, and serve as a central resource for clubs and rowers. The group supports rowers facing homophobia, particularly in the collegiate and elite levels, who feel pressured to keep a low profile among the over 14,000 U.S. rowers. With gay-friendly member clubs nationwide (in Austin, Boston, Dallas, San Francisco) and throughout the world, GLRF member clubs have regattas planned over the months and years to come. "Just like any other sport, it's difficult to reveal your sexuality on a collegiate level," where most rowers get their first training, Todd says. GLRF's outreach at larger rowing events has brought interest from college-level athletes. Gay and lesbian-inclusive clubs usually spring from older, more established rowing clubs. Fledgling clubs can't afford to maintain equipment and boathouses on their own. "Many gay and lesbian rowers are very integrated into the rowing community," says Todd. "It's not our intention to yank them out, but to create a worldwide community, to provide coordination and links between everybody." Several clubs saw a growth period building up to, and after, their success at the 1998 Gay Games V in Amsterdam. Because Sydney's Games VI didn't include rowing, many crew enthusiasts sought to continue organizing to make their case for rowing events at future Games. Events include 4-person, 8-person, men's, women's, and mixed events. Schedules for each club vary, with summer sprint races of up to 1000 meters, autumn races up to 6000 kilometers, and river races up to 12 kilometers. Rowing has its own vocabulary, with terms like sculling (rowing with two oars) and sweeping (rowing with one oar). "Way nup" means stop rowing. A pivotal role is that of the coxswain (pronounced "cox-in"), who steers a boat with a delicate rudder, and keeps the rowers' pace. The traditional megaphone has been replaced with an electronic "cox box" and battery-powered speakers. Since a coxswain doesn't row, he or she should be smaller in size. An amusing historic tradition of the sport includes tossing the coxswain in the water after a victory. Despite having broken down certain elitist stereotypes, the sport of rowing does have Ivy League roots, and British ones before that. Its co-gender structure has attracted women to most clubs, including the Miami Beach Rowing Club. Victoria Sigler trains at the University of Miami's facilities, where her club also leads youth training camps. Clubs usually offer orientation sessions and basic training before allowing novices to row. The slender boats can cost up to $20,000 each. A number of rowers at the Miami Beach club had no previous experience, but learned at a summer camp for adults run by U. of M. staff. "It's a pretty interesting and diverse population at our boathouse," says Sigler. "We're a bit of a United Nations sport, with more than 15 countries represented: Scotland, Ireland, Serbo-Croatia, Italia, Venezuela, and Cuba." So much for Abercrombie & Fitch-style elitism. "Seeing college students rowing, [the upper-crust stereotype] is understandable," says D.C. Rowing Club's John Arndt. "Our membership shows that regular people row because they enjoy the water, the competition and the camaraderie. The level of commitment varies from season to season, but we have a very competitive core that likes to go to every possible regatta." Arndt notes his club's greatest accomplishment has been to host the Stonewall Regatta, which has attracted rowing clubs each June, straight and gay, from all over the U.S. and internationally, for 10 years. Of course, it isn't always obvious which boats lesbian or gay athletes oar, but still, they're there. This comfortable assimilation is more about integration within the larger sports community, says San Francisco Bay Blades' Hizam Haron. "We're very open with our visibility in the regattas. We don't wear rainbow flags, but people are familiar with the Blades being a gay and lesbian club. Even at a race where we won, a lot of people were surprised to see a gay club win a medal." Haron mentioned some students who he said had contacted them. "I'd heard of homophobia in college communities," he said. "They're glad there is a gay and lesbian group out there." GLRF's Todd describes the experience of rowing with passion. "Once you finally get over that first hump of awkwardness," he says, "the blistered fingers, being cold, wet, tired, working out in the morning; when you're feathering correctly, the oars going in formation, it truly is a Zen-like experience." Jim Provenzano is the author of the novels PINS and Monkey Suits. Read more sports articles at www.sportscomplex.org Related stories Gay wrestlers heat things up [17/03/2004]