Fall

Our varsity team spends the fall training and racing. Due to the late start to our academic year, we come back to school a week before classes to participate in a fall training camp to play catch up to other collegiate teams who have been on campus for a month. During the fall, we participate in head races. The biggest competition is the Head of the Charles in Boston, where we compete against teams from around the world. In a head race, the boats are staggered at the start and race against the clock. Most head races are between 4000 and 6000 meters and times are compared after all boats have completed the course to determine the medal winners.

The fall is also when we recruit our novice teams. Crew is unique in that a first-year rower or coxswain competes in a separate division from experienced, varsity athletes. At the end of their novice year, a rower becomes a member of the varsity team. During the first two weeks of class, we hold an informational meeting and begin holding practices for people interested in the rowing team. Novices get a chance to learn the basics of the rowing stroke and begin training. At the end of October, our novices compete in their first race in Elkhart Indiana.

Rowers also help contribute to the fundraising efforts of the team in the fall by working at the concession stand at the football games, participating in cleanups, and a rent-a-rower.

Winter

In the winter, both the novice and varsity teams move to our indoor facility in Patten Gymnasium where we train on rowing machines (ergs) and lift weights. The goal of the winter is to increase our fitness level for the spring season. Winter is also when we try to do most of our fundraising as we are traveling much less than we are in the spring and fall. We work at the concession stand for the basketball games and host our erg-a-thon where we bring our rowing machines outside and row in one hour shifts with the goal of rowing 500 collective miles. We attempt to find sponsors for this event with the goal of funding our spring training trip to Summerton, South Carolina.

Spring

Both novice and varsity teams begin the spring by loading a bus after winter finals and making the sixteen hour drive to Summerton, South Carolina to spend a week at Camp Bob Cooper. During this week, team members sleep, eat and row in the sun of South Carolina and away from the icy Evanston weather. The week ends with a regatta at Clemson University before making the trip back to Northwestern.

Races in the spring are sprint races - covering 2000 meters. In a traditional sprint race, crews line up and with a, “ready all…ROW” command, row to the finish. These races are different than head races in that the first crew to cross the line is the winner. Often there are heats, semifinals and finals in bigger regattas, but we also participate in duals and smaller races.

Once back on campus, members of NU Crew are back on the water, practicing daily and racing on the weekends all over the Midwest with our season culminating in Philadelphia with the Dad Vail Regatta where our boats go up against the some of the top club and varsity crews from across the country. Success at Dad Vails is one of the main goals for our club.