5Well, this one's about the rowing team's third regatta, and our first 2000m race. This event takes place during the last 750m (approx.).
Date: Saturday December 13, 2003
Venue: Lake Karapiro, Cambridge
Crew: Macleans College Novice Girls 4+
Boat: Paula Storey
Race: Women's Novice Coxed 4+
'Alright! Come on girls, you're doing great – you're in first place and we're coming up to the 500 metre mark! Go hard – give me 20 on, this time!' I said into the Cox Box, fighting with the rudder which kept straying to the right. 'Watch the pressure, bowside,' I said, for about the fifth time that race. Kelly and Abby were the strongest in the whole crew, and unfortunately for me, both girls were on bowside, which meant that the boat strayed to the left every so often. Shantel, who was stroke, and Laura couldn't compete with their strength to keep the boat straight, so I had to play around with the rudder, which was very temperamental.
'Come on, girls!' yelled Shantel, giving it everything she had.
'Okay, you're just past the 500 metre mark, guys! Come on, don't drop the pressure, Waikato-Dio's right beside us, we can't lose the lead now,' I cried, making sure I didn't yell into the speaker.
I felt the boat's run pick up, and kept an eye to my left, toying with the rudder to keep it straight. Even though everyone didn't seem to have a problem, I had the worst problem keeping the boat straight. I had gotten a white flag a number of times, and even though I didn't know what that meant, I was pretty sure it had something to do with my zig-zagging across the lanes.
'Shit,' muttered Shantel. I saw her seat jump a bit and she slowed down a little, but picked it up again quickly.
I encouraged the girls some more, then covered the Cox Box mic. 'Is your seat coming off the slide?' I said softly to Shantel. She nodded grimly and kept on rowing, yelling to the girls to keep going hard.
I mentally crossed my fingers and hoped that Shantel's seat would stay until the race was over. '250 metres, guys, come on, pressure on until the finish! We can do this, we can keep the lead and get first place!' I said.
It was all going well until Shantel suddenly drop down painfully on her butt on the slide. She and I winced and Kelly gave out a short yell as Shantel chucked the seat behind her to get it out of her way. Shantel looked at me in hopeless laughter. 'I can't row now,' she said to me. 'I'll have to touch it home.'
Choking back horror and laughter, I calmed the girls down. 'Don't worry guys, it's alright. Um…' my mind raced as I tried to figure out how to deal with the problem. 'Uh…Kelly, drop all pressure now! Laura and Abby, just keep going – everything you've got. We're nearly there, guys, only a hundred to go. Bow pair, pressure on! Come on, Waikato-Dio's dropping back but they're going to catch up anytime soon! Come on, don't lose it!' I said, panicking inside but managing to keep my voice calm. I could hear the people on the bank laughing at our predicament, and Shantel and I couldn't help but start laughing too. Shantel looked positively funny, with her sitting on the boat between her slide, her butt just fitting nicely in between the two rollers. She rowed as best she could, in B position, and kept going hard until we crossed the finish line and heard the horn. Looking back, I saw that Waikato-Dio hadn't passed us.
Laura whooped. 'Hell yeah! Did we get first?'
I grinned. 'Sure did, guys.'
'Water, water now,' gasped Kelly, and I threw her her bottle.
Shantel smiled at me goofily. 'I guess we better get back now, huh?'
'Yeah,' I said. 'Alright, um….strokeside – sorry, two, pull around.' Laura started pulling around and I called out instructions to get us to the boat retrieval block. Shantel's dad and Michael – Sam's dad – pulled us in, grinning slightly. Roxy and Sam, two of the senior girls, were there, laughing at us. We grinned back good naturedly, getting out of the boat. I let go of my weights gratefully, plonking them down on the wood.
Kelly handed Shantel her seat. 'Here go. Thanks for nearly taking my head off,' she said with a grin.
Shantel took her seat with an apologetic smile. 'Sorry. Didn't mean to – just wanted it out of my way. Did it hit you?'
Kelly shook her head. 'Nah. Just nearly, though.'
Laura and Abby came towards us. 'What happened, Shantel?' Laura asked.
'Her seat came off,' I explained.
'Like, totally flew off and nearly cut off my head,' Kelly exaggerated.
We all laughed and Roxy and Sam joined us. 'Good one, guys,' said Sam.
'Yeah, and you still came first. Next time, Shan, don't chuck your seat. It might have fallen into the water. But, it was still pretty funny,' said Roxy.
'Okay, girls, we'll take the oars. Get the boat in, other people want to use this block,' said Shantel's dad.
Turning to look who was behind us, I saw the Waikato-Diocesan girls grin at us and flash us the thumbs up sign. 'Great racing, guys,' called their cox. The rest of their crew nodded their agreement.
'Hands on,' called Shantel, and the four girls took the boat up to the trailer, helped by Sam and Roxy.
It doesn't seem so funny now that I write it. I cracked up at 'Shantel' – I should have taken a picture of her expression when she totally dropped hard onto her slide. After we talked about it back at the trailer, it appears that 'Shantel's' seat was already jumping when she started, but totally came off when she shot back. The seat flew out from under her, and she reached back and chucked it back so she didn't sit uncomfortably on it. 'Kelly' caught the seat as it flew towards her face, and put it in front of her feet. Quite hilarious, really. Review!