Acquiring Sculling Skills: Turning!

The commute to the boathouse has never been prettier.

Blue boats waiting.

Lisa sculling through the narrows on the HotH best line.

Prepping for the Head of the Charles includes honing the important skill of how to turn on a dime. The famed 3 mile course has plenty of turns, not to mention 5 triple-arch bridges to negotiate. My precision turning skills definitely fall into the "Needs Improvement" category so Friday's morning row was a skills clinic.

Conducted by sculling coach Lisa Schlenker, her sharp eyes and commanding voice kept me hopping for two hours. With water like glass, bruised skies overhead and nobody else on Hosmer, we rowed laps and zig-zagged all over the place (no traffic pattern in effect!) honing the ability to turn while keeping our stroke rate strong. Our only company: a pair of kingfishers and the adolescent loon and its parent.