June 10, 2013

The 2013 Dave Thorsness Rowing Challenge!



Where's Dana and Miles?!?!  Photo by dReFoto.com.  I'll post more of his photos of the race once he posts them.

Last year, my boss signed up the Curzie Chiropractic crew to row as a team in the Anchorage Rowing Association's Dave Thorsness Rowing regatta.  9 teams of local businesses and organizations who compete to become the holders of the huge Thorsness trophy until the next year's Dave.  While we were not the ones bringing home the trophy last year, we had such a great time!  I was very excited when Curzie handed us the paperwork to re-form our ADJUSTOARS team for THIS years regatta!

 
What a great way to bond and team build with your co-workers, meet and network with folks from other businesses, and learn the basics of rowing!  The whole deal can be quite chaotic....but that's what makes it so fun!  Your team only gets TWO practices before the actual race!  The first in landbased-1.5 hours practicing form and synchronicity on ergometers(rowing machines).  Then a couple days later they introduce you to the boat and take you out for 2.5 hours of practice on the lake.  Rowing an 8 person boat efficiently and fast is REALLY hard!  Everyone has to be in sync and using perfect form...not to mention putting in quite a bit of strength to power the thing with speed!  
On race day there's 9 heats, 3 boats racing at a time.  They have a pretty nice spread of food as well.  This year, the weather was an AMAZING(and has been for about 3 weeks now!  Actual summer in Alaska!) 75 degrees and blazing sun!  Everyone seemed to have a great time-a very competitive atmosphere, while also staying down to earth and friendly.  The best part of this years race was that Miles was able to join us as a team member!  He took to the rowing right away and was a good asset to the team.  The downside was a call from Dylan at basic training sounding sad and stressed out.  We were all in tears by the end of the call and we were wishing so badly that she could be with us on this great day. 
We were invited to sign up for the novice rowing classes the ARA holds for free for the rest of the summer!  I'm hoping we can make it one day a week.  I really enjoy getting out on the water and being a part of a rowing team!
 
Our coxswain, Sue


Willa, my water baby, spent the whole day in the lake!

Our team liaison, Scott and opponents engaging in some pre-race boogieing down to Michael Jackson!
 
 
Warm-up yoga!



The Adjustoars maneuvering into our starting spot.

And, no, we didn't take home the trophy this year.  NEXT YEAR, it's OURS!!!!!