Aquafest 2023

Aquafest was a big success again this year. The weather was great and we better weather and we meet many new faces at the boathouse. Saturday we enjoyed team time during the Main Street parade and the Pink Panther 8+ rode in the parade with our pink ergs. Sunday we hosted our own Try Rowing. Thank you Lake Stevens for making it a great weekend for all!

2023 Northwest Masters - Regional Championships, Oregon

We had a great weekend of competition and camaraderie at NW regionals at Dexter lake in Lowell, Oregon, over the weekend.

There was some tough competition, but we held our own. We are competitive with these clubs who have much more experience and time rowing at this venue. We made it into finals in four events: women's quad, women’s lightweight double, mixed double and men’s double. We won medals in the women's quad and lightweight doubles races.

The wind was definitely a factor at this venue! It steadily increased throughout the day everyday. All the rough water practices back at Lake Stevens helped to prepare us. It was exciting to see all of our crews perform in tough conditions with the region's best teams!

Thank you, teammates, for all your support. The cheering really helped to spur our racers on! Thank you, Coach Kevin, for our repeated 1 k workouts!

Onward to head racing! Let's get 'em!

Coach Barb's Retirement Party

Native to Snohomish County, Barb Cummins has been engaged in rowing since 1989 as both a recreational, then competitive rower. Barb served on the USRowing Junior Women’s National Team for seven years, as a USRowing Referee, and Junior Youth Program Coordinator of 120+ youth athletes. Barb has over 25 years of Rowing Program Development and has served on a number of non-profit boards. She started her 30th year of coaching in 2021 and retired from coaching last month.

2023 Spring Sprints

For this year's Spring Sprints regatta we had twenty-three clubs with over 500 rowers participating. Our new regatta director, Marc Gordon, thought of everything and the weekend was well run, organized, and went smoothly, based on feedback from the referees and other club members. The new timing system, CrewTimer, was a great addition and the developer was on hand to help us get started. The regatta was a great success!

The first day of the regatta was Saturday and the races were mostly youth. The Club doesn't currently have any youth rowers, so we didn't have any racers that day. The weather was overcast, but otherwise had good conditions for rowing.

Sunday's weather, on the other hand, started with rain, but cleared up and left us overcast skies and some wind in the afternoon. The Club had crews in twelve races and participants performed well.

Congratulations to all of the race participants. Thank you to the many people who worked tirelessly and often behind the scenes to make the regatta a success.

Setup for the Spring Sprints Regatta

The Lake Stevens Rowing Club’s Spring Sprints Regatta starts tomorrow, so the some of the crew spent some time today out on the water setting up the buoys for the race lanes. It takes some work to play out the buoys with their chains and anchors, but there was time for a bit of fun too. There are a number of other prep activities volunteers were working on too, like erecting the regatta headquarters and first aid canopies, cleaning the boathouse, scrubbing the rescue launch boats, sorting out the ribbons and medals for the placing rowers. Great teamwork everyone. We are ready for tomorrow.

Green Lake Spring Regatta

The crew gathered in Green Lake early this morning to unload and rig the shells to get ready for the regatta. Thank you to Kevin who drove the trailer down to Green Lake and demonstrated his driving skills to exit the trailer parking lot, as well as to the non-competing Lake Stevens Rowing Club members who turned to support the Club.

Some of our racers were novice rowers, but there were no novice categories in the regatta. They had to compete with more experienced rowers instead. Some shared that the experience was helpful and provided perspective for the next regatta.

Congratulations to all of the racers regardless of how they placed and to Coach Barb whose knowledge and dedication brought Club to where we are today.

Those that placed from the Club were:

  • Jim and Bruce: 1st, men's double

  • Kaja, Michele, Bonnie, and Elizabeth: 1st, women's quad

  • Isabella, Meghan, Charisse, and Trish: 2nd, women's quad

  • Kaja and Elizabeth: 2nd, women's double

  • Daan, Bruce, Henry, and Jim: 3rd, men's quad

  • Kaja, Bruce, Meghan, and Jim: 1st, mixed quad

Saturday Morning Practice

It has been a while since this blog has been updated. There should be more news and pictures following the Spring Sprints regatta on April 22 and 23. Now we are just over six weeks of training remaining until Spring Sprints.

Headed out to train at 7 am. Had fourteen rowers spread in three quads and a double. The rain cleared out with only a little drizzle, warmer temperatures compared to conditions for Wednesday's training. Some wind gave a tailwind later. Practiced 1k race plan and hoping to win at Green Lake next weekend.