The Beach Crew Journals – Novice Season Preview

By Coach Jeffrey Vreeland

The 2012 spring racing season is underway and about to get vigorous in the month of April. We take a look at an athlete who discovered Beach Crew over the fall semester as a sport that is like nothing else and has high hopes for his involvement down the road. Take a look…

The experience in my first year of Long Beach State Crew has been a rewarding one. Going into a sport that I knew little about, I was happy to learn to row from the ground up.  I’ve discovered that it’s a sport where you get what you put in on many levels.  Working on gaining physical and technical strength is challenging, but through camaraderie and mental stamina, I have learned to break through walls and push myself with others on the team through goals we never knew were attainable.  As I pushed myself to be a stronger athlete, this inevitably helped me and the team, as shown in reaching the standards we have set as a boat.  It’s not only about me, but my fellow athletes as well, as they have a huge influence on your strength through practice and on race day.  Learning to work together as a team and setting goals on solo and group levels directly correlates with success, which tightly bonds the team together.  It’s a special relationship that I have with everyone in the boat, knowing that we are all ultimately one body when we compete.  The experience that rowing allows for athletes is rich and complex, one that I am hesitant to compare to other sports because of its uniqueness. Rowing is hard, but rewarding. I look forward to what my future in the sport holds for me.

– Garrett Kennedy