Rowers Paradise

When an Olympic rowing medallist describes somewhere as "Everything you could imagine paradise to be, and we rowed there", its going to pique anyones interest, never mind the passionate expedition rowers.

Unfortunately, this wasnt the sales pitch, it was the after-the-event summary of a trip I DIDNT go on, but golly, I would have loved it... Crystal-clear water and World firsts, not to mention the impromptu lobster dinner. Wow!

And why didnt I go?
Basically, because it cost a lot. But youll notice I didnt say that it was too expensive. In fact, it was a very suitable price for its aims.

Heres why.

"Paradise", in this case, is in the Maldives, an island nation made up of 1,192 coral islands, of which fewer than 200 are inhabited, and straddling the equator (more on this later) in the Indian Ocean, southwestish of India. So, not surprisingly, everything there is incredibly expensive. For example, UK readers will known that petrol in Britain is more expensive than it is in mainland Europe, and massively more so than in the US. Well, apparently, its about the same price in the Maldives. And you dont need to be an economist to see that their average incomes, arent anything like ours. Almost everything needs to be imported, and that just costs.

Rowing to your hotel.

So, a major aim of this tour was to bring some tourist spend to these beleaguered islands, which are also under threat of simply disappearing below the waves as sea levels rise (lets face it, being the worlds lowest country isnt really something any nation would want).

This said, the Maldives are very good at tourism, and those on it enjoyed not only the incredibly beautiful environment, but the very warmest of welcomes, as well as superb hospitality aboard their air conditioned "floating hotel" safari boat.

Trip facts
This trip broke new ground, or should that be water, in so many ways. Taking place in February 2015, it was the first FISA Development Tour, and was organised in partnership with Rowing the World and the Rowing Association of Maldives. It  was led by British Olympic rowing silver-medallist Guin Batten, who is Chair of the FISA Rowing For All Commission, whos also famous for her 2010 solo crossing of the 60km "Zero Degree" channel between Fulmulah Island and the Vaadhoo Atoll, in a coastal single scull.

Guin Batten 

The total tour party included 20 people, aged 30-70, of 11 different nationalities.

Lasting 10 days in total, the rowing was a mix of:

• Serious challenges involving rowing considerable distances between islands.
• Learning safety drills for the above challenges.
• "Rowandering" about inside atolls, over the shallow reefs.

Add in some snorkeling (because "half of paradise is under water" so you need to be in it as well as on it), a load of BBQs, school children dancing, bands, mayors, lots of locals coming to say hello, and you can see why this trip was a long way above even the highly acclaimed "whats not to like?".

For boats, the tour hired three coastal doubles from the Rowing Association of Maldives, plus Guins single from her Zero Degree Crossing, which shed left for the Maldives rowing community to use. 

The serious challenges and the first "World first"
The group undertook two serious challenges, the first being a kind of warm up for the larger, second one.

But before I describe those, you need to know how a party of 20 fitted into just seven rowing seats, and it;s called hot rowing...

A water change: Step 1 

This is kinda the sculling equivalent of hot desking (and with temperatures regularly around 28 degrees Celsius, it was literally HOT too). But how to do do this, out at sea? The answer is "water changes".

The rowing boats were constantly supported by a local "dhoni", a motor boat whose propeller was carefully kept in neutral whilst the changes were going on.

Step 2

The "fresh" rowers jumped into the water from the dhoni, swam out to the rowing boats, sometimes on a static line, and used various techniques to get on board, including a "seal" entry" over the stern, as well as the more conventional push up on the side.

Apparently rowing in soaking wet kit was very refreshing! Although people suffered from great handfuls of blisters because of rowing with wet hands.

Challenge No.1
This saw the first ever sliding seat rowing crossing from Addu Atoll to Fulmulah Island, a distance of around 28 nautical miles or 50km. The whole team participated, and with days being relatively short here (it being on the equator makes them roughly the same length, of course), despite setting off at dawn, they didnt finish till 20 minutes after dusk, which must have piled on the pressure – because you really dont want to be heading towards a coral island in the dark.

Challenge No.2: the Zero Degree Crossing
The big thing about this crossing is not so much the distance of about 60km, but the state of the sea. Guin had, of course, crossed it all on her own - but shed also failed to do so a few months later in a coxed quad - yup, much more "woman power", but with only a 3-day window to try and fit the crossing in, the score was Sea 1, Rowers 0, despite them battling for 5 hours to try and make headway.

A LOT harder than paddling on flat water.

But despite success being far from a foregone conclusion, 14 of the party nevertheless decided to get up at 3.30am so that thy had a chance of making landfall at night, should they reach Vaadhoo. The first shift was the longest – even Guin described leaving harbour at night and venturing out into "surf country" as "scary", and those crews knew they had to keep going till sunrise, when it would be safe enough to do the first water change.

After that, there were 1 hour shifts, then 45 minutes, and finally 30 minutes, as crews got more tired.

Reaching the equator was a wonderful: the boats paused for 15 minutes, and all of those not rowing swan across the line. The married couple from Norway kissed (in the water), and Maldivian drums and music was played on the dhoni. Cool!

Although there was still plenty of hard work to do against the tide, they also picked up a good current as they approached landfall, and after 10.5 hours, they finally arrived "on the beautiful island you could imagine", where the floating hotel was moored, ecstatic and elated, albeit extremely tired.

Wow. Just wow.

"Rowandering"After all that achievement, the focus of the trip shifted to some gentler rowing, with more space to soak up the utter gorgeousness of the islands, the crystal clear water, and the wildlife. As they paddled slowly in the shallow waters within small atolls, they spotted sharks (nice ones), turtles, dolphins, and blue, green and yellow-coloured reef fish galore. As Guin said, "The pictures in your head will carry you through the rest of the winter."

It was on one of the evenings after a day of potter-paddling in paradise that a little motor boat appeared at the moored safari boat, selling huge, fresh and incredibly tasty (so Im told) lobsters.

I really, really would have loved it. But so would you.

Rowing in the MaldivesUnsurprisingly, rowing has a long tradition in the Maldives. Rowing boats were long used to travel between islands; rowing played an important part in fishing, a key part of the Maldives’ economy; and there were many local or even inter-atoll rowing (makes perfect sense, but I still love this phrase) races in these traditional wooden boats, often as part of local festivals or celebrations.

Does your rowing club look like this?

All this changed as recently as the 1980s, when motor boats finally took over, and although there are still a few of the old rowing boats around, they’ve generally been retrofitted with outboard engines (despite the hideous price of fuel).

However, driven largely by Guin, rowing is now being reintroduced to the islands, and particularly promoted to women. Their Rowing Association has been established, and there are about ten boats based in two locations, and a series of volunteer coaches from Europe have been helping to establish programs and transfer skills to local coaches. Despite  all this progress, there are still considerable challenges facing the further establishment of rowing as a self-sustaining program: there is no government funding for grass-roots sport; there’s no culture of volunteering; paying subs; or even of sports clubs at all.

And then theres the whole issue of boat maintenance. All seats have to be double action, for example, because ball bearings will corrode quickly in salt water, and with no handy suppliers, as well as the punishing effects of sun and sea, even keeping the few boats they have in working order is no mean feat.

The tour supported all of this: raising funds for spares, and by visiting so many islands, it did a great job of raising the profile of rowing amongst the islanders who were so welcoming wherever the rowers went.

All photos © Guin Batten, 2015.

The Rules of Expedition Rowing

Expedition rowing is not like "normal" rowing. Sure, you sit in a the same kind of boat, and do the same kind of stuff with the blades. Thats not what I mean. Expedition rowing requires strict adherence to three key rules. Ignore them and not only will you suffer, but your crew mates will suffer too, and theres every chance that you wont make it to the end of your chosen expedition.

However, Im not sure which order they belong in. Maybe theyre equally important? 

1. Eat. 
You use a lot of fuel when rowing long distances. Fact. Your fuel tank is not large enough to do the whole thing in one go (think Formula 1 in the 1990s, say, and not like it is today). Fact.

This all seems perfectly reasonable and sensible as you read this in front of your computer or other online device. But youd be surprised how often people get this wrong. although theres a good reason why they do.

Which is, that when you havent eaten enough, your decision making ability is impaired. And this leads to you making poor decisions about eating. Which only leaves you MORE "not having eaten enough": you can see the obvious spiral downwards.

So, here are some tips to remember about eating on expedition rows:

1. Eat when you have the opportunity. Dont wait till you feel hungry. You may not have the opportunity to eat then.
2. If you feel too tired to be able to make the effort to eat, use your last reserves of effort to eat. It will be worth it.
3. If you feel so tired that you dont think even eating will help you, eat anyway. It WILL help.

To help with point 1b, make sure you have easily-digestible, easy-to-eat food close to hand. I am a big fan of having a Ziplok bag of Jelly Babies by my rowing seat. My crew mates are often fans of this too (offering round Jelly Babies makes you someone people want to row with).

My crews hands after our first 160km race

round Lac Léman. Note the lack of blisters.

We wore gloves.

2. Look after your hands (and bum).
As far as Im concerned, there is absolutely no need to finish up with raw hands and skinned bottom at the end of an expedition row. Or, worse, part way through one.

Injuries like that are almost certainly going to  doing to reduce your physical performance, but they will also get you down. And long-distance rowing is generally hard enough mentally, without you making it unnecessarily worse.

So heres the deal: wear gloves. No, I know that, with one exception I can think of in the last 15 years, no international rower wears gloves. Or even any good club rower going to do an outing or a race. But this is different. Its expedition rowing. Youre not just nipping up and down the river for an hour and a half and then going home. Youve got to keep rowing all day. And possibly the day after too. Maybe even for several after that. And "once its gone, its gone".

Gloves may also not be enough: use tape too, and take supplies with you.

And heres what happens if you dont: the double Olympic gold medallist and ocean rower James Cracknell famously went on to do a race to the South Pole, in which he got infected blisters. However, he admitted later that when he felt his boots starting to rub, he didnt call for his team to stop so that he could tape up the friction points, and when they did next pause for a scheduled break, he didnt grab that opportunity to do so either, as it was a lot of effort and he was exhausted (Im sure he was).

And the point here is that, only a small part of the way in to his long trek, his feet were clearly not going to get any better by being ignored. It is NOT "manning up" to put up with the pain. Stop and tape up at the first sign of tenderness.

"Happy bum."

The same goes for your bottom. Fixed-seat skiffers face the greatest challenge here, with  condition known as "skiffers bum" being widespread, even from a 45 minute trip round up the river and back on a Sunday morning. 

Nevertheless, when I turned up for my first "meander" with a large piece of upholstery foam, there was a lot of laughter. Which had died down by half way through the first day. And when we assembled for my second, well, lets just say that "Square Sponge" had plenty of company (and the local branch of Fabric World couldnt understand its unusual spike in foam sales).

Things arent quite so difficult in the gluteus maximus area for sliding seat rowers, but theres still no need for unnecessary suffering. "One seat pad good, two seat pads better" pretty much sums it up, as far as Im concerned, and in a survey of people Ive rowed round Lac Léman with,  100% agree.

3. Shut up and row.

Perhaps this should be rule Number 1 because, whilst the two rules above define WHAT you should do on an expedition row, this is the very epitome of HOW you approach the whole thing. 

Its also the basis of how you should choose your crew mates (never, ever embark on any row  further than about 15km with someone who cant do this, and dont even contemplate more than 5k with such a person if there is a sharp or heavy object in the boat, just in case youre tempted).

Incidentally, I was amused to read on the website of a French womens four called, of course "Rames Dames",  who rowed the Atlantic, that the concept has universal traction: their team slogan was "Tais-toi et rame".

When the going gets tough, just shut up and row.
(Note good observance of Rule 2 here.)

Just in case youre not quite clear why this is so important, perhaps because you are planning an expedition row but havent yet experienced one, Ill try to explain. Much as all of us who get as far as our second expedition row love doing it, expedition rowing isnt the same as going to Disneyland. If it were, everyone would be doing it and you wouldnt get the sense of achievement. As my slightly baffled stepmother commented "You seem to spend a lot of time, cold, wet, tired and in pain". I pointed out that on some rows the weather was nice and warm and it didnt rain, but she was right about the other two.

But when youre tired and in pain, you want to have faith in the rest of your crewmates. When you do, you can safely be determined not to be the weak link and let the others down, which will help you push on. You dont want to know that theyre struggling, and they dont want to know that you are. The last thing they need to be thinking is "Is X going to make it?", "Is Y not pulling any more and am I going to have to work harder as a result?", and definitely not "Why doesnt she shut up?" And, frankly, if you dont talk about it, it isnt so bad.

Telling other people about your (rowing) problems (during an expedition row), is pure selfish indulgence. It wont make the boat go faster or the finish come any sooner. Dont do it. 

Expedition rowing: great to do and
great when it ends too.

Most expedition rowers arent daft, and we can all spot a bit of discreet back stretching whilst the cox is changing over. But the trick is to smile cheerfully at the person behind you as you try and get your spine to click, find something positive to say something like "The waters nice and flat here" or, of course "Fancy a Jelly Baby?", and gloss over the fact that youre wondering whether youll need a crane to life you out of the boat at the end.

And, above all, no one likes a whinger.

4. If its valuable and would sink, tie it on. 
This one clearly isnt in the same league as the first three. But, having had one expedition row disappointingly turn into an unplanned swim, I can promise that it would have been even more frustrating to have lost my camera (waterproof), GPS, and torch, all of which had been tied on and were successfully recovered with the boat.

5. Know how to use your abdominals.
When you back hurts, and it almost certainly will, you can reduce the strain on your back by engaging your abdominals aka "sucking it all in". Its an effort, but nothing like as bad as rowing for another two hours wrapped in lower back agony.

If it helps, engage the services of a Posture Pixie to sit on your shoulder and whisper "Sit up" in your ear at regular intervals.