Rowed Rage! - The Sequel

Sculling (or, as I like to spell it, skulling), is the type of rowing that people do that isn’t dragon boating or canoeing. Seriously people, think Yale and Harvard varsity rowing teams. It’s that kind! You wouldn’t believe how many people think that rowing is dragon boating. Sheesh. But I digress.

The corporate rowing challenge came around again this year, and though I couldn’t participate last year, I was excited to re-join this year. Two years ago, I was stroke seat and led my team, Rowed Rage, to a small victory (we won one race). This year, with a completely different crew, we challenged our foes again. This year, the regatta was up at Deep Cove in North Vancouver and infinitely more beautiful than the UBC Boathouse in Richmond. I mean:




Enough said.

My illustrious crew this year (though we only practiced all together for a total of half an hour), was this group of strong, powerful, and rage-filled ladies:


Yours truly, B, Deanna, and Elly.

Of course, I say “rage-filled” because this is the sequel to my story and we are, again, Rowed Rage.

We needed to be up in Deep Cove at the unholiest of hours on a Saturday – 7:00 AM. This means we woke up before 6! Did I mention this is a Saturday? Our first race was at 8:15 AM and we were given a boat I grew to detest, The Fung Shui.




This is us, heading out to the start line for our first row.




Aaaaand, coming in from our first race.

We lost our first race due to a really bad start. The boat was also very difficult to row in as the rigging was so low that I was almost rubbing my thighs when rowing. I was so exhausted during the row that I thought I was going to die. If I would rate my effort during the race, it was surely 3000%. I even started grunting and groaning, but Deanna’s shouting kept me going forward (or backwards, as it were). Thanks Deanna!


So not crazy about the wet docking system.

The day really started to clear after 9 and it started getting hot.



For our second race, we were given the kingpin of boats, the Granite. What a freaking luxury dream. It was like I was rowing with butter (ew, but you know what I mean.) Our race this time was against the Stantec men’s team (well, three men and one lady). After a killer start, we were in the lead for the first half but lost out in the end (I get so exhausted again that I feel my body is going to implode. I have never worked so hard for such a short period in my life.)


Us = white. Stantec = yellow.



Though we lost again, we had an absolutely ridiculous time for the heat and advanced to the quarter finals. The best losers were us! I was in serious need for an adrenaline shot to the arm, but I dragged myself back into the stupid Fung Shui boat for a last and (imo, disastrous) race.

Bad start, one rower lost her oar, and we were so tired. We lost, needless to say, and with that, we were done. The regatta is always a blast though, win or lose. And the location couldn’t be beat. Also, it is important to note that the only two newbie teams at the regatta this year were us two UFV teams. The teams we lost to had been racing together for years. Huh.


Group shot! Thanks for the hard work, coaches!

After the regatta, there was a free BBQ, but we didn’t stay as it was B’s B-Day celebration and we had Mildred along for some misadventures. So we bid adieu to Deep Cove and headed into downtown Vancouver. So much done, and it wasn’t even noon yet.





Janelle picked ramen for lunch so we dined at our usual spot, Benkei. Mildred is not a ramen fan, but I am. SLURP!



After lunch, we headed up to wander Robson Street (again…it’s our usual). Well, today was our (un?)lucky day! The day before Janelle’s birthday also happened to coincide with Nude Bike Ride Day! Hurrah! Turns out every June 12 at 2:00 PM, people all over the world mount their bikes in the buff to protest things. I was reading about the one in Vancouver and this one was to protest ‘car and oil culture’. Riiight. I took a picture. Want to see?..........................perverts.



I couldn’t bear the shame of displaying gratuitous nudity on the blog, so I took a distance/action shot. See, you can see that they are naked, but it’s blurry and far off. They sure did have the people’s attention though! Mildred just stopped walking and stared. Janelle and I had walked some distance before realizing that she was gone and we turned around and there she was, still staring with a look of bewilderment. There wasn’t much to see, let me assure you. Personally, I was more interested in this naked beauty:


Now that’s what I’m talking about.

We had big ambitions for the day, but we were so exhausted from all of our rowing rage that we cut the day off early after dinner at Olive Garden. Wow. Two Olive Gardens within two blogs of each other. You must think I’m like, an Oliver Garden ho or something.





HAPPY BIRSUDAY B! Much luv.

Welp, that was our day. I got to give lots of credit to Deanna (and her huz-b Sean) for providing half of the rowing pictures you see above – THANK YOU!

Also, I got a pair of sweet Ray Bans I gotta share.



OKAY BYE!