San Diego Crew Classic––Random Blog Post

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Past fall I joined the USC Crew team, and this weekend we are going to attend the biggest regatta on the west coast. I am still relatively new to the sport and I realized that I have still much to learn about it. My teammates and the coach have been hyping up this weekend for weeks. Thus, I decided to do some research and to write my random blog post about this upcoming regatta.

The History

Rowing is the oldest collegiate sport. It started out in 1852 with the race between Harvard and Yale. Ever since, the ivy league schools dominated the landscape of collegiate championships, and most of the talent was concentrated on the east coast. In 1973, they organized the first "San Diego Crew Classic" regatta (SDCC). The idea of a regatta on the west coast was accepted enthusiastically by many collegiate teams. This first race featured 12 races with 300 athletes.
An old picture of a rowing boat at one of the first regattas

Since then, the competition was organized yearly, and the popularity of the regatta grew constantly. Now there are not only collegiate  Today, there are over 100  races over two days with more than 4000 athletes (one of them is me). The regatta features of the largest the largest sweep boats (8 rowers and 1 coxswain) which also happen to be the quickest on the water.

The historical impact of the regatta is huge––it contributed heavily in spreading the sport to the west coast of the US. Before the 70s most of the olympic rowers came from "powerhouse" teams on the east coast, and the west coast was often excluded. After the introduction of the race the geographic bias of the sport was strongly reduced. (Compton)

The Location 

A picture of Mission Bay taken from the air
A normal race is 2 kilometers long (1.243 miles for Americans) and good boats will finish the course within 6 minutes. To host such a race you need a lot of space, and Mission Bay has enough of it to host such a large scale competition. In addition the bay protects its waters from most of the waves of the ocean. Nevertheless, the course has a reputation for being "rocky". Rowing boats are not made to endure waves. Thus, even small waves could become an issue.

Over time the location has become iconic for the rowing community. The event is not only a race, but it is also a meeting point for all  the vendors of the industry and and all the alumni from programs all around the country. Alumni can rent out tend spaces along the racecourse for their reunions. This is one of the reasons why the race has become so popular. It is a meeting point for everybody––from near and far–– to celebrate this old sport and to showcase school spirits. 



Link for lifestream of the race (starts on Saturday morning): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ves6cdWt5hs


Picture of the USC rowing team as they practice during the sunrise (I am 7 seat in the left boat)


Works Cited

Compton, John Wolfe. “About Us.” San Diego Crew Classic®, 24 Oct. 2018, crewclassic.org/about-us/.




 

Comments

  1. Kane Acosta4 April 2019 at 15:48

    Thats an awesome fact I did not know about you Patrick ! I wish you the best of luck with your Regatta. I enjoyed your analysis of this specific event as well as delving into the backstory of crew and racing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jaren Aunan5 April 2019 at 13:56

    This is so cool I had no prior knowledge to rowing! Good luck this weekend! Interesting that it came over from the east coast - kind of seems like how lacrosse got started. It blows my mind that rowers can go 2 km in 6 mins! I'll have to watch an event at some point.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matty's Blog7 April 2019 at 21:03

    This was awesome! I hope you did well at the Regatta. I have a few friends on the rowing team that might know you :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. AW3407 April 2019 at 21:06

    So neat to learn about crew! I didn't know anything about it so I'm glad to now understand some of the basics. I always knew it was popular on the East Coast but never learned about it while I was there, so I'm glad to finally know something. I hope you enjoyed the Regatta this weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lorenzo Montini7 April 2019 at 23:43

    I really admire you for waking up every weekday at 5 am to go to practice with the rowing team. I don't think I would ever be able to do such a thing. I hope that you did well on this race, as a reward for all the early mornings you had to wake up before the sunrise!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Katie Francel7 April 2019 at 23:47

    It's awesome to hear that you're on the USC crew team! Thank you for sharing the history, because I have never really learned in depth about this sport! I also love the pictures you included!
    -KT

    ReplyDelete
  7. Alastair Odhiambo8 April 2019 at 14:09

    I hope you had a great time! I like how you gave a brief history of rowing. It must not be easy waking up early to train for the races!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous8 April 2019 at 15:57

    I had no idea you were on the crew team! So cool.

    -Kaela

    ReplyDelete

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