St Agnes ladies ‘skying their oars’ on a wave back into the beach

Do What You’ve Always Done And Get What You’ve Always Gotten

At the start of the summer, I decided to try something new. The motto I’ve adopted for the last few years is ‘do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always gotten’ and I think it’s a really good way of helping me to remember to always push myself. With this in mind, after playing rugby for over half my life and I felt it was time to try another hobby.

So I gave surf-rowing a whirl.  This little known sport is an action packed, adrenaline fuelled mix of technique, power and ballsy-ness that spawns from who else but those crazy Ozzies. The concept is unconventional, yet very simple – take a boat, 4 rowers and a sweeper, jump into the boat on the whistle, row out around a buoy and try to catch waves back into the beach. To put it simply, it’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

There are many facets to learn when it comes to this sport, even if you are an established rower, which, apart from a couple of thousand meters here on there on a rowing machine, I am not. A successful surf rower must be a good technical rower both individually and as part of a team, have knowledge of the conditions and not be adverse to wearing a pair of tight, wedged-up speedos.

I found very quickly that becoming surf-rowing’s answer to Steve Redgrave was not going to happen overnight, which I was somewhat disappointed about. From the outset, I, like many others, went into the boat thinking “how hard can this be, right?”. How wrong I was. Although a lot of people can row, it takes a lot of skill and dedication, both technically and physically, to become a rower. Taking in, seemingly, hundreds of tips, corrections and advice led to a very sore head and left me feeling very frustrated.

I will always remember bringing a book home from school that I was instructed to read and telling my mother that I didn’t enjoy it. Being the character that she is, I was served with the response of “you should read books even if you don’t enjoy them, you might even learn something”.

Perseverance is something that my family and I have never lacked and I thank them for it.

UKSRL Summer Series Round 6 at Perranporth

Despite the difficulties I was facing in the boat, I was determined to make progress and ‘learn something new’ (but more importantly succeed in the journey I had embarked on). I went out of my way to attend sessions and, slowly but surely, improved enough to make a race in the last competition of the season at Perranporth. A proud moment for me.

Many will tell you that if you love a sport you should give it your all your effort, time, everything. My advice would actually be on the contrary to this. Try something new and you will get something new out of it.

Unexpectedly, I have found that rowing has improved my rugby. Not only has my physicality improved due to the intensity of the new type of training, but also my capacity to learn new skills at rugby training, and approach the game with an open mind. Obviously this is a positive outcome that I did not foresee, and I have proved to myself once more that ‘do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always gotten’.

Photo Courtesy of Sophie Keats