Summer Potluck at the Water’s Edge

We have been playing a coast to coast game of chess on google docs for the past few weeks. We have all these talented women who have thrown their hats into the ring to row with Chinook this summer, and we are working feverishly to put all of you in the right combinations. Only time will tell whether we have done right by each athlete, but let it be known, we have worked very hard to make the experience a successful one.

The rest is up to each rower.

Ask yourself if you have done your part. To race with a team such as ours, there is an obligation on the part of each individual to be self motivated. You are ultimately responsible for your training, and fitness and preparation prior to arriving at each regatta. We trust you are ready and raring to go. Ask yourself, are you mentally prepared for the experience of meeting new people – embracing diversity and looking for the positive in each moment. Coaching styles, coxing styles, and personalities can all be very different, lets celebrate what we all have to offer. Even go so far as to ask yourself to be the one who works the hardest to make this the best experience you have ever had. After all, it is what we each bring to the table that makes any potluck great. It will set the tone for this collaborative rowing opportunity. Bring your very best, and dish it out with power and grace.

Come row the world with us!

Chinook Performance Racing is a rowing team built on a foundation of friendship, respect, mutual understanding, and a competitive athletic vision that reaches beyond the borders of the USA and Canada. We are a coxed 3 at the moment, with a handful of friends who also happen to be excellent rowers – who are interested in traveling the world, competing in races that appeal to us, and hopefully enjoying some success along the way. We are professionals who understand what it means to work hard, support our families and train hard to support our habit! We are spread from one side of the country to the other – north, south, east and west. We even sneak up across the Canadian border to Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.

We are a not for profit team. We intend to stay that way. To be a part of this team requires the ability to fund trips to regattas throughout North America and sometimes Europe. We will also be hosting rowing camps throughout the year – none of which are “required” in order to race with us. They are tools to bring us together, and we try to time them with races we are attending. We have a quiver full of coaches, excellent coaches, who are willing to meet us in various locations and spend some time refining our technique and bringing us together. Xeno Muller, Marlene Royale, Kathy Boyes, Scott Anderson, Christine Wilson, are just some of our coaches. We are so excited to have them want to be a part of Chinook Performance Racing.

In the next month we will race at our first regatta, the San Diego Crew Classic. We are entered in the E Eight, which is essentially a boat full of 50 somethings. It is a very competitive category – a few of us have been chasing after this medal for a few years. It is tough to escape the winter doldrums and jump in a boatload of athletes from all over the country – and make it click just right at the first race of the season. However, it speaks to our perseverance and tenacity that we keep coming back year after year because we are determined to make this one our own!

We have listed regattas we intend on competing at this year on our calendar page. Some of the regattas are great “getting to know you” regattas. We will do our best to vet the athletes that apply to row with Chinook, fit into appropriate categories, and then invite you to race at regattas that we feel are best suited to us together. We are taking a team to Masters Nationals in Grand Rapids Michigan this summer and would like a team diverse in age. We are holding this team to a fairly high standard and hope that everyone understands that we are a high performance team. We expect your fitness levels to be optimum, and your rowing ability to match.

We are a competitive group with high expectations. We have our sites set on winning the Head of the Charles in the Senior Masters 8+ if we get through the draw this year. As a new team we have to just keep our fingers crossed that we get in. We will attend the Head of the Hooch in Chattanooga this year as well the Wine Country Regatta in Petaluma, California – both regattas are in beautiful locations and offer some great racing opportunities. The wine isn’t bad either.

We will try to attend the World FISA Masters annually. This year the races are in Australia and the timing is just too close to the Head of the Charles to swing it. We are all set for the races next year in Belgium – and we will host a 2-3 day rowing camp ahead of the regatta at a lovely rowing club in Holland. Great atmosphere, great equipment, great racing! We have a men’s team that is looking forward to racing with us in mixed events – all very competitive rowers – and we hope to enjoy some success with them as well.

So – that’s the skinny on CPR. Please log in and check in regularly to see what we are up to. Visit the Athletes Profile page and send us your information if you would like to race with us. We will post access to training plans that will keep us all working together despite the miles that separate us, as we prepare for regattas. Join twitter and instagram and Facebook, so we can stay in touch.

Remember, we are only as good as the sum of our parts. Let’s keep all the parts up and running, healthy, strong and happy – our individual commitment to our own fitness combines to create a fit, united rowing team!

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The Crew at CPR

Founding Members: Deborah Davis, Nancy Dynan, Merida Scully & Lesleh Anderson