NotesonCoastalRowing:What?,Why?,andHow?SagarSenIn the summer of 2006, during my first sjour in France. Nicolas Parquic asked me, SagaAr you want to go to Brest to row on ze sea for ze Championnats de Bretagne? Zere will be waves and it will be interesting to adapt to zem!. Not knowing what to say right away I plunged into a oui mais.. moment of lightheartedness. I had rowed only on water that was flat like a mirror or in a slightly choppy St. Catherines river back in Canada. Rowing a sixtyfive kilogram boat (almost thrice the weight of a normal rowing double) on the relatively big waves of the Atlantic ocean was quite out of the comfort zone I knew. Nevertheless, Nicolas had a voice of persuasion as he had already shared with me a lot about the French way of rowing that I found very intriguing and in resonance with my inner self. We agreed to do it and drove from Rennes to Brest carrying the oars of Rennes tudiant club. Nicolas and myself paddled into the ocean in a borrowed Eurodiffusions coastal rowing double along with the other teams. As we headed to the start line we could feel the deep breaths of the ocean in the form of waves rocking our boat. Nicolas told me not to worry and think about keeping ze blades in the water as I row, let it follow the wave and dont fight with ze sea. I must reveal that Nicolas and my other friends spoke English with a beautiful French accent which among other factors like the music, literature, science, food, and the history inspired me to learn French in about a year fromthen.A coastal rowing race is around a circuit of three or four large buoys derived from the format of sailing races. I didnt think much about all that and let Nicolas (sitting behind me) take charge of placing ourselves on the start line and eventually ensure that we were going the right way. Nicolas said, Lets place ourselves next to zeese guys from Concarneau, zose guys are fast. The race started with the long sound of an air horn and an instant later I could hear phu phu phu..sounds of breathing out all around me. The race was frantic and the start as we headed for the first buoy almost all together. If I remember correctly we avoided crashes except hitting the buoy on the right side. Boats then slowly spread out over a gruelling twelve kilometer (today the races are six kilometers long) race. Nicolas nicely managed navigating the boat and kept pushing me to surf and row light..lger SagaAr lger he said. The meaning of these words dawned on me a few days later and that's when began my love for the sport of coastal rowing. Coastal rowing is the art of surfing, slicing and dicing through the waves of the humbling sea and this is an article about the what, the why,andhowofcoastalrowing.Whatiscoastalrowing?Before we delve into what coastal rowing is it is worthwhile to get an overview of rowing itself. Those familiarwithrowingingeneralcaneitherskipthefollowingsectionormuseonsomeofthebasics.Rowing itself: Rowing is a water sport where you principally use your legs, back, and arms to propel a boat on the surface of water. Essentially trying to make it glide by creating air bubbles under the boat. When you row with one oar and hopefully with at least one other person then its called sweeping. While if you row with two oars one in each hand then this mode of moving the boat is called sculling. You can either go out alone sculling in a single or scull/sweep with one, three, or seven other people in a longer boat. Not to mention that you need a leader sometimes called the coxswain to steer the boat and bring cohesion among rowers. That was a simplified explanation of what rowing is. However, to me what really is gratifying about rowing is the meditative state it puts you into. Imagine putting your blade in the water and taking a stroke and watching the landscape go by without much sound except that of the air bubbles trapped under your boat. This is the feelingthatdrivesmostpeoplebackontheirboats.

Coastal Rowing: In coastal rowing you row with the geste that constantly adapts to elements called wind, waves, and currents trying to get from point A to B to C to D and back to A along with other boats trying to do the same in the open sea. Occasionally, you are bumped into by either another boat, a buoy or a dolphin. Extreme adaptivity, a good sense of orientation and a heightened state of awareness are the hallmarks of coastal rowing. Peter Berg, a 2014 world champion in coastal rowing simply put it like this, olympic rowing on flatwater is like road bikingwhilecoastalrowingontheseaislikemountainbiking.Waves and winds: In the open sea, winds come from any direction leading to the creation of surface waves. These waves look like sine waves but are actually trochoidal waves. They have a circular motion as seen the figure above. If you have ever been scuba diving trochoidal waves give the feeling of being pushed back and forth underwater. Rowers must put their blades in the water at the right moment to possibly get on the forward and deep face of a wave. This leads to surfing and the boat travels at the speed of the wave which is often faster than other boats that dont catch the swell at the right moment. Waves can hit a boat transversally often breaking a nice rhythm. Being a little stubborn and getting back in the game to keep the boat moving is the joy of coastal rowing. Depending on the height of the wave rowers often adjust their oar locks and bring them high enough to avoid getting the oar stuck in a big wave as seen in the figure with the coastal double. Winds on an open sea turn oar blades on the boat to little sails. The blades are often pushed around by the wind leading to many errors in the rowing stroke that only add up on inches lost. A rower adorned with good bladework will try to create least resistance to the wind. A smart rower checks the wind and wave forecast on Wind Guru. Of course, some prefer to lick the finger and stick it out in the wind, but I keep that as a last option. Waves can put the boat on an uneven water surface hence it is important to have different hand heights on the oars to be good grip of the water. Developing such a rowing style is a key point of difference between flat water and coastal rowing. When I lived in France we often went to St. Malo on the coast of the Atlantic ocean. The atlantic ocean has tidal waves that creates swells different from usual wind waves. These waves represent the feelings of a heartbroken lover trying to reach the moon but never makesitthere.Rowingonthemgivesasurgeinyourownpalpitatingheart.

Currents in the sea can make a big difference in the speed of the boat and its direction. Ideally, it is always a good idea to learn about the currents in the coast from locals. Currents can be longshore currents, rip currents, gulf currents, upwellings and downwellings to name a few. Given an initial itinerary based on shortest paths between points it is often very useful (and safe) to redraw an itinerary based on the currents in the sea. Sometimes a long path may be faster due to the possibility of using currents between two points A and B via a third point C. In 2011, Loc Grald my doubles partner and myself were racing on the basin of BasseIndre close to the city of Nantes. We placed ourselves in the middle of the basin while the rest of the boats were sticking to the coast line. We wondered why everyone was sticking to each other on the coast and increasing their chances of collisions. As soon as the race started it felt like we were rowing in mud instead of water. We were stuck in the middle of a current like duct tape. Those on the coast effortlessly went past us after hundred meters in the race and we couldnt do much about it except not make the same mistake on the second lap but it was a bit too late. The current is often strongest in the middle and least on the shores. However, without a current it is always advisable to row in deeper waters than in shallow waters. As boat speed increases in shallow water there is increased drag. That day onwards I made it point to make friends with the locals and listen to a captains meeting at a race and rely less only on my physical strength towadethroughanything.Informationbegetsfairnessincoastalrowing.Boats: Coastal rowing boats are designed to be resilient in choppy, windy, and wavy conditions. For instance, ideally the front doesnt dive down into waves, can selfevacuate water because of an incline and open back, and can slice through and surf on waves. Oars are rigged higher than usual when the waves get bigger (greater than 1 meter). Most coastal boats must follow the regulations set by the international rowing federation FISA before a race. There are a number of boat manufacturers catering to different price ranges and with varying levels of performance in different conditions. Here is a list of wellknown boat manufacturers: Leo coastal (video) , Filippi (video), Salani (video), Safran, and Eurodiffusions. Which boat is the best? This is a hard question to answer as they depend on multiple factors such as their suitability to sea conditions and the crews experience. I would hold myself back from giving my personal opinion on these boats as this would be biased given my limited experience with some boats in this wide spectrum of choices. A good source of information are the results and videos from the French,Italian,Spanish,andWorldcoastalchampionshipsuptothelastfiveyears.Whycoastalrowing?Norway is my new home away from home (which is India) and has a rich tradition in rowing on the sea for both transport and sport. My initial motivation to write this article was to promote competitive coastal rowing in Norway which is now a fast growing sport worldwide. History is good place to start because when beliefs are deeprooted it generates emotions that can make mountains move. I started to blow the dust off

Norwegian history books to get glimpses of what could strike a chord in the heart of every Norwegian about their lifestyle before they found oil in the 1960s. These glimpses are unshakeable stanchions in the potential of the human spirit. Christopher Columbus himself was preceded five hundred years ago by Leif Eriksson, a Norwegian viking, who crossed the Atlantic rowing with a crew of thirtyfive men. Frank Samuelson and George Harbo, Norwegianborn

Americans, were the first ever to cross the Atlantic rowing in a double. Survival in Norway (before the 1960s) depended on their great resilience and hunting skills in the cold north. Fridtjof Nansen, one of the

greatest Norwegian explorers, donated his personal inuit kayak with seal fur hull to the student rowing club in Oslo, Norsk Studenters Roklub. He hunted seals and walruses for dinner. Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright, once wrote a now famous poem about Terje Vigen. Terje Vigen lives on the south coast of Norway close to Grimstad. During the

Napoleonic wars he rows alone in a boat to Denmark to bring back food for his family. On the way back the British find him and makes a hole in the rowing boat therefore sinking it with all the food, resulting in his familys death. He himself is taken to prison. The poem is a little sad but it brings to surface the grit and resilience of the state of mind of a Norwegian at that time. Terje Vigen was a man who rowed all the way to Denmark to save his family. In the consumption oriented world we live in today, rowing and fishing is done for recreation and not survival that much. Magnus Harju, a swede living in Norway for ten years, grabs his Lowrance SONAR, a fishing line with a bait, and sets off on a coastal rowing boat to fish on the Oslofjord. Rowing at a pace of not more than 10 kmph he drops his fishing line to catch mackerels, trouts, and cod in the fjord. He then uses the mackerels as bait to catch lobsters for dinner. Life is good but a lot of talent and genetic residue can be canalized towards a new purpose. It is the right moment to revive rowing for speed and survival in a modern context. Another anecdote in my life, not directly related to rowing, that I would always cherish was when I travelled to the Amazonas in Manaus, Brazil. The native guide and his assistant could spot a sloth or an iguana hundred meters away in the thick canopy of a tree with their naked eyes. While, we never managed to do so on several occasions even with binoculars. What was it about them that made them so sharp in their natural context? This question resonated in me and was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had. Working out in a closed gym gives an athletic contour, however, we will cease to develop skills of adaptation,orientation,andsurvivalthatonewouldwhileembracingnaturalelementsincoastalrowing.Competitive coastal rowing: I started talking to people about competitive coastal rowing. I was met with less than expected interest in the country of oceanic explorers. I discovered that Olympic rowing on flatwater and its promotion over the last decades had created a number of myths and presumptions. Another obstacle is that people love training on rowing machines in fitness centers, which have now turned into dating venues. Hence, lets take a look at some of the myths and challenge them to remind Norwegians about their deep relationship to the sea to awaken the explorer within. I must also mention that the reasons to take to the sport of coastal rowing are universal and it is open to everybody who would like to revive theirinherentevolutionaryrelationshiptothesea.Myth #1, Coastal rowing is for masters rowers. This is on top of list of myths that I have seen circulating

and is not quite true anymore. Highperformance coastal rowing races has changed a lot in format from a 12 km course back in 2006 to 8 kms, and now are only 6 kms long. This intermediate distance has attracted athletes from a wide range of ages. In recent years, a number of highperformance rowers in Europe have taken to coastal rowing

as an extension to their flatwater season. The Gountounas twins (who normally row in a pair) from Greece participated at the World Coastals in 2014. The pictures show Lassi Karonen (a world class single sculler who participated in the world coastals in 2013 at Helsingborg), and world champions Adrien Hardy and Jeanbaptiste Macquet in coastal rowing boats to name a few. Coastal rowing I believe creates a level

playing ground for experienced rowers or socalled masters rowers leveraging experience and ability to adaptwhichareintradeoffwithsheerphysicalstrength.Allareatthemercyoftheelements.Myth #2, Coastal boats must be heavy and more suitable for beginner. Coastal boats are rowed on saline water with higher buyoancy compared to fresh water in lakes. This makes coastal lighter than initially perceived. The wetted surface area varies with waves often leading to very lower friction as boats literally fly from wave power. Surfing on a wave can make the boat go really fast, sometimes much faster than a rowing shell. This feeling is exhilarating. Coastal boats are designed to slice through waves and maintain stability in choppy conditions. It is not a boat for beginners in rowing and needs considerable skill in rough sea conditions. In the summer of 2014, in rough fjord conditions, Paul Bencze and myself after an initial fight cruised passed an eight person boat in a coastal double. We finished the 15 km race several minutes ahead of the eight, while the eight finished with a lot of water to bail out. The flat water boats are simply not designedtogohandleroughconditionsofthesea.Myth #3: Coastal rowing develops bad technique. This is true to some extent provided your goal is to row on flatwater as well. A combination of flatwater rowing in a single scull with coastal rowing will give you an incredible amount of confidence in rough conditions in either setup. I must also emphasize another of my observations: if you have seemingly indiscernible technical flaws on flatwater they are greatly amplified on rough sea conditions. Rowing on the sea is a very good way to visually identify weak points and focus on thedetailsforimprovement.AfterchallengingsomeofthemythsIdiscusssomeofthekeyreasonsIbelievecoastalrowingrocks!Coastal rowing is complete. If you do coastal rowing (and the land training associated with it) then the only other thing you would possibly need to do is Yoga to stay focused and supple. Rowing solicits major musclesandisimpactfree.Thechaosthrownbytheseaaddstoaheightenedstateofawareness.Coastal rowing can be for athletes from different background: The learning curve to coastal rowing is not very steep especially for those with a different sporting background. Magnus Harju contributes the reallife story of Lars Gumprecht to illustrate this point. He hopes that the story will inspire endurance athletes from crosscountry skiing, running, kayaking, swimming etc. to give competitive coastal rowing a shot. Lars lives with his wife in Torrevieja, Spain and has been windsurfing and kayaking his whole life. Sometimes he windsurfs about a 100 kms in around three hours. He owns five different kayaks to battle the waves off the spanish coast while exploring the coast lines or deep sea fishing for tunas far off the coast. The first time Lars sat on a rowing machine was in 2009. At that point he was using the rowing machine to get fit for the kayaking season. He soon realised that he was actually doing quite well on that machine compared to the other members at the Real Club Nautico of Torrevieja rowing club. A year later the manager of the club talked him into attending the world indoor rowing championships in Boston where he did very well with a time that was sub six minutes for 2000 m (often achieved only by top national team rowers). One more year later Lars tried rowing on the water for the first time. With his vast experience from ocean kayaking, the strength hed built up on the machine and not the least the determination of taking the gold medal, none of the traditional rowers were able to stop him while he was racing through the water off the swedishcoast.Hewascoastalrowingworldchampion2013inHelsingborg,Sweden.Coastal rowing to unleash creativity in anyone. We take a digression from the competitive aspect of coastal rowing for a moment. People often tell me that rowing is a little strange as you dont see where you are going. I tell them that this is what helps develop a sixth sense. Rowing into the ocean or the fjord takes

you away from the noise of the city and the radiation from mobile networks. With your hands and legs tied in action all you can hear are passing seagulls, the wind, and the air bubbles under the boat. You are in a meditative state of mind that I will show by example have given people their most creative ideas. Jacques Perrin, the french movie maker known for Z, Cinema Paradiso, the Brotherhood of the Wolf, and the Chorus got his best ideas while rowing on the Seine he tells Gran R Buckhorn for the blog hear the boat sing. However, I am not sure if his movies would be different if he rowed on the ocean instead. The French author Jules Verne who grew up in Nantes (a city known for its rowing culture) was inspired by rowing on the sea as key adventure element in many of his works. Another French author from the same epoch, Jules Leclercq wrote a memoir on his trip to Norway, sometimes rowing as he narrates in his epic Voyages dans lNord dEurope. Rowing not only inspired writers and observing painters like Van Gogh and Monet but also scientists. These scientists probably got their best ideas and revelations while rowing. Rainer Storb, a Nobel Laureate in Medicine for marrow transplants, rows to work everyday to the Hutchinson center. Rowing has been an important part of the lives of many Nobel Laureates some of whom include George A. Olah, Sir. Charles Sherrington,JensC.Skou,StanleyB.Prusiner,LeeJ.Silverberg,andWillemEinthoven.Coastal rowing is breaking barriers. Coastal rowing competitions do not follow the traditional olympics format of pitting countries against each other where every athlete needs to hold a passport of their respective nations and row only with the people with the same passport. Coastal rowing developed as a competition between clubs where athletes can come from any nationality. This situation is ideal for a world with increasingly rich migratory patterns. I myself have lived in four different countries over the last ten years and have competed with people from different lands. Another interesting outcome of the situation are dinners with treats from around the world. I remember having made Indian food (with less spice on request) on several occasions during my years in France. Coastal rowing competitions promote mixed crew races where men and women row in the same boat. Mixed crews represent an interesting dynamic between power andfinesseamountingtodevelopmentofmutualtoleranceinmanycases.Adaptability and humility, a gift from the oceans. The unpredictable ocean means anything can happen to anyone. Oars can break, boats can overturn, or you may just be lucky with the waves and currents that help you along. Coastal rowing races are like the chariot race in the movie Ben hur and some think of it as a Formula 1 race. In my opinion a lot more fun than rowing in a straight line in separate lanes. This unpredictability creates a sense of adaptability and humility in the coastal rowing community rarely seen in otherhighperformancesportswherethearenafluctuatesverylittle.Environmental Awareness. Rowing on the sea creates awareness about how we treat our oceans. What is often covered up on land is later found in the ocean. We often see floating garbage, oil slicks, and dwindling fish populations that makes us think hard. Promoting coastal rowing on the vast coastlines of the world I believe will generate a profound sensibility for our acts on land. On the Oslofjrd, Janne Hunsbeth once saw a duck that swallowed a plastic tube part of which was seen hanging outside the beak. She could see that the duck would soon die. She would have never seen something like that on land. Erik Damman, a Norwegian author and government scholar, and the person who started the organisation Framtiden i vre hender (The Future in our Hands) is very fond of rowing. He rows on holidays with his wife along the coast in a wooden boat. They think rowing is perfect for environment friendly recreation as opposed to using motor boats.

Howtoprepareforacoastalrowingcompetition?The sport of competitive coastal rowing is based on the FISA race rules and norms. How can an individual who is either rowing single or part of team supposed to prepare for a coastal rowing competition? I will not enlist a step by step procedure but give a set of viewpoints and let the reader think about how to bring these elementstogethertobestsuithis/hercurrentsituation.The Quantified Rower: (a) Being coached on the turbulent sea by a person on a motor boat, lets face it, is for the most part unrealistic. Therefore, we ask, how do you know that your are doing well as coastal rower? A modern coastal rower measures and quantifies him/herself alone and also when in a team boat. In a chaotic environment such as the sea it is very easy to be thrown off rhythm and put into a false rhythm. This is the illusion of making effort by going back and forth on the slide but actually contributing little to making the boat move. The best way to determine effective rowing is to measure individual heart rate, speed, and direction of the boat. Every rower in a boat ideally must own a heart rate monitor with a GPS watch. Popular GPSenabled watches amongst rowers are Suunto and Garmin. Lars Gumprect, a selftrained world coastal champion, used such a device extensively in his training with practically no coaching. He got most of his technique from videos on YouTube while eating vaporcooked carrots. Lars uses such a device to set up waypoints in an open sea to create circuits to keep direction and practice turns. Lars likes rowing alone but such a device is also very handy for every member of a team boat. Every member should verify his/her contribution in terms of effort measured in heart rate range and to do his/her best to contribute to boat speed (something everyone is aware of from the GPS). Executing a strategy like taking ten hard strokes becomes very effective when everyone observes a rise in heart and boat speed due totheirindividualefforts.(b) Another wonderful selfassessment instrument is a video camera. Looking at oneself and accepting ones faults is the greatest human virtue that most of us try to avoid. Its an eternal quest for an individual to detach oneself from his/her ego. Rowers with the courage to do so use a waterproof camera such as the Go Pro Hero glued to the boat to get a wideangle view of blades going in and out of water for every rower. The GoPro gives a vivid representation of what is going right and most of the time wrong when it comes to team cohesion and geste. It is very useful to once in a while look at team videos with a constructive outlook to improve rowing geste and team cohesion. A video presents the naked truth that is often in contradiction with what we feel and think. Videos can challenge strong inner beliefs/impressions and sometimes challenge the integrity in a team as members may lose trust in each other. A conversation around it must be constructive and not blatantly judgmental. Sometimes a rower may look great gesturally as seen in the video but his/her effort may not be optimal at all. While, a rower that doesnt look good on video may be the one who actually contributes to boat speed. Hence, fusion of input frommultiple sensors: video, speed, and heart rate is the state of the art in truth that is easily accessible today with massmarket technology. However, I dont recommend going out fully equipped with technology on every sortie. The frequency of analysis also must take into consideration the psychological impact on each rower and the time to absorb lessons learnt. Too much feedback can easily make some people neurotic.A LOT of practice in rowing as a team: Set yourself an objective of lets say 2000 km of effective rowing a season together with your teammates. Just as a reference olympic athletes often row

between 500010000 kms a year together. This is of course not possible for everybody who has a job, or a family, or even both. An agreement may be reached on a number X and then work towards it. In Rennes, one of my coaches Frederic Delaive introduced the concept of 50 km weekends that can be achieved in two, three or four sessions. This was a feasible target on days where most people were available. I must also emphasize to try and row in a wide range of conditions. Not only on calm sunny days. The goal for rowing a LOT together is to feel lighter on the boat and be able to adapt together to changes in rate and external circumstances such as wind, waves, turns, and other boats to name a few. While I lived in France, we got our best training while touring long distances (a) around spots in the south of Bretagne such as St. Marine, Lorient, Ile de Groix, Les Glenans, Quiberon, Ile dArz, Golfe de Morbihan (b) along the pinkgranite coast and Ile de Brehat (c) and while descending the Loire valley (while visiting the wine caves on the way) from TourstoNantes.Racing is training: You are rarely going to be a 100% ready for a race! See racing as training. I have seen some people train and race for many years before making it to the podium. It is however very rare that someone gets to the top right away. Lars Grumpect is one such example of a quantified rower who managed to become world champion in the first attempt because he knew that he had the levers from measurements he made earlier. A very good idea is to recreate a race course in a training area at home. For instance, Lars Gumprecht recreated a close replica of the race course in Thessaloniki at home in Torrevieja, Spain using his GPS device. Coastal rowing is not always in a straight line and there are crucial moments requiring turning around a buoy. It is vital to practice turning around a buoy as it entails slowing down and anticipation of a turn. Some boats, such as the Safran and Filippi, are very well designed to make quick turns while some boats have a hard time turning while already moving in a straight line. Knowing your boat and practicing the turns is an essential part of your preparation. Doing so during a race requires a rowing crew to respect priority of boats. The current FISA rule states that an overtaking boat at a buoy must take a larger turn around the boat first at the buoy. The boat first at the buoy must go in a straight line after its turn and not attempt to block the boat right behind. Making an error can lead to penalties in time. I have had my share of penalties either due to starting off ahead, or due to missing a turn at a buoy. Staying calm in the heat of themomentonlycomesfromdoingmanyraces.Mental Toughness: Your (and my) preparation must start with the right attitude and state of mind. You must know that you are confident about your preparation and have an unshakeable belief that you will do your best. Every effort in training or race must involve heart, determination, and full focus. It is good idea to visualize yourself through a plan for a training session or race while keeping full focus, being energized by the effort, and feeling confident. Almost like a religion many rowers have a simple routine before a race. They either go running or row on a machine to get into the zone and find some alone time with their teammates to focus. Whenever, you race especially in a team it is important to trust each other, compensate, and adjust to maintain poise and composure. If you lose trust in your teammates your effort in the race may not be maximal. Get rid of negative stinking thinking and take each stroke to gain every possible inch of displacement. Fatigue and time automatically generates thoughts of giving up. Circumvent these thoughts with thoughts like, this is a phase in my mind, let me row through it and it will be gone, I cannot let others down, let me finish what I started, let me shift my mental focus to my geste and technique for the next ten strokes, I have five hundred meters to go and I have done it a hundreds of

times. One must focus on the process of competing well and giving their best and winning will take care of itself.Planning the year: Like in any other endeavour planning is essential to steady improvement in the coastal rowing program of a club. Planning for an entire year will require commitments in availability from rowers to train together and attend races. Having a calendar of events (eg. French calendar) before the beginning of the year will allow rowers to build up to the world coastal rowing championships that is an open event in October/November each year. The calendar will ideally have a good mix of national and international races and in varying conditions. For instance, rowing on the atlantic ocean is very different from rowing on the mediterranean sea. Some of you may be worried about the costs of travelling and rowing in these varying conditions. If people share car rentals, fuel and cook their own food Europe presents many opportunities for economical rowing along with the added benefit of sightseeing and cultural exchanges. Rowing communities in many parts of Europe and in France in particular from my experience are very warm and welcoming making the expenses for rowers to a minimum in lodging, food, and boat rentals for races. Most clubs do not want commercial gain but cultural exchanges and an opportunity to share the rowing experience. I hope one dayNorwaywelcomespeoplefromotherpartsofEuropetotraininthepristineserenityofitsfjrds.Depending on the country you live in and its climate you will divide time between training on land/indoors and being on water. In Norway and Canada for instance training is often indoors all winter long along with crosscountry skiing or swimming as a crosstraining activity. A winter long training program should ideally develop general strength, maximum strength, power, strengthendurance and speed. Here is an example program in Excel (with supplementary material: general strength, strengthendurance, maximum strength, power, holiday) we developed in 20062007 that can be used as a template and adapted according to your specific local conditions. Indoor rowing is a major part of a training program and must be done with the correct technique as shown in this video with Lubomir Kisiov and his athlete. I often notice the inflexibility in hip flexors and lower back in rowers. In my opinion it may not be a bad idea to get regular sessions in yoga such as Ashtanga or Bikram to develop calmness and much needed flexibility. Nutrition for rowing is an important subject that is beyond the scope of this short article. Many rowers see food as fuel and eat a high calorie diet after a workout. Very much like toplevel swimmers like Michael Phelps. The 2013 world coastal champion Lars Grumpect who is 37 pays special attention to his diet. He resorts to a slow and vapor cookedmealandavoidsusageofoilforfrying.ClosingremarksandacknowledgementsThis article is my personal account of coastal rowing. I apologize if I have missed some important aspects of the sport. Please send me an email (sagar@simula.no) and I will update the online article based on your feedback. The article intends to motivate people to see the world through the lens of rowing on the sea. More than 70% of the world is made up of water in the oceans and we need to rediscover our inherent relationship to it. There is a scientific theory that states that life as we know it originated and thrived in the oceans first among other theories such as life came from outer space. The article intends to invite athletes, leaders, boat makers and in general individuals in search for purpose to create communities to explore the vast coastlines of world. For instance, my home country, India, is adorned with a peninsula and long coastline. There is a need for entrepreneurs to develop our relationship with the sea for both physical health andenvironmentalawareness.Some people I personally know and look up to, without them realizing it, helped me give life to this article. I cite Lars Grumpect as an example quite a bit in my article as he developed into a worldclass coastal rower from scratch and in a datadriven manner. He is a quantified and autotelic rower who has trained to reach a

very high level and I admire him for that. I must mention that he gives a lot of credit to his wife for standing by him in his endeavors. That said I have had the opportunity to meet extraordinary people in the rowing world that inspire me by their wide spectrum of abilities ranging from just rowing to organizing communities around the sport. These people (in no particular order) include Catherine Bruneau, Nicolas Parquic, Frderic Delaive, Hlene Rmmond, Gwen Savary, Peter Berg, the coastal team from St. Malo, Alberto Extarte, Jeanyves LeCrenn and the Safran team, Renato Alberti, Mike de Petris, Lionel Girard, Lubomir Kisiov, Matt Leo, Brice Kolko (my first rowing coach back in McGill University, Montreal), Paul Bencze, Stein Mrk, the Swisswomenscoastalrowingteam,Mr.HowardCrockerthemakerofoarsfromAustralia,tonameafew.All in all, I hope these notes have nudged you into learning a bit more about the sport of coastal rowing. I eagerly look forward to seeing you on the seas. If you are in Oslo feel free to check out our website (http://www.christianiaroklub.no)orfindusonFacebook(https://www.facebook.com/Teamcoastalrowingnorway). Finally, I am immensely grateful to Magnus Harju, Nina Johanne Krogh, Katinka Wolter, Janne Hunsbeth, Paul Bencze and Aneel Nair for their edits, comments, and overall enthusiasm in my notes. I simply wouldnt have the drive without their encouragement.FormoreinformationaboutrowingingeneralIsuggestsomeofthefollowinglinks:RowingquotesRowingbiomechanicsCarlosDinaresRowingTipsIndoorRowingTechniqueThePhysicsofRowingThomasLangeTrainingSebastienVielledentandAdrienHardyTrainingFabriceMoreauAnticsIvanovVyacheslavRowingKatrin Rutschow-Stomporowski in 2004 OlympicsMaxRiggingBooksonRowing(Amazon)GooglescholaronRowingHeartheBoatSing150YearsofScientificEnquiryaboutRowingandRowersHarryMahonatthe1994CoachsconferenceGlimpsesofcoastalrowing(youtube)GettingbackonaboatWorldCoastals2010,Istanbul,TurkeyPrinceAlbertIIChallenge2011,MonacoCassisRace2011WorldCoastals2011,Bari,ItalyCoupedeFranceAvirondeMer2012LarsGrumpecttraininginaC1xAtlanticGamesforJuniors2014FrenchNationalChampionships2014,Arcachon

WorldCoastals2014,Thessaloniki,Greece