Oars and other Rowing Regatta Issues

In this video, Ken Davey and Darren Croker discuss some standard oar and health issues to keep in mind for your next regatta.

Video Transcript

A particular issue that can happen at a regatta which is really disappointing for everybody athlete coach spectators the lot is is if you have a gear failure such as an oar breaking now you think oars are pretty tough oars don't don't break very often and indeed they don't but what can happen is an oar can get damaged in the boat trailer or when someone's leaving around lying in the boat park or pretty much anywhere and sometimes you can't really see the damage clearly so it's important to make sure you check the oar for damage before you get on the water oars when they come out of the factory are tested for weight tested for example the Croker blades are tested with 170 kilograms of weight just below the the gate point just below the collar to ensure that they're strong enough so the oars are pretty strong but what i suggest you do is when you get to the regatta check the oar before you get on the water second thing is when you get onto the water what i suggest you do before you go far from the shore is to do a couple of really hard strokes so really put the power onto that blade to make sure that it's robust enough it won't break because they can break at any time so be really mindful that the oars can get damaged and sometimes you can't see the damage so it's important before you get on the water in a race situation uh check the oar lean on it a bit when you get on the water do a couple of hard strokes just to make sure that the gear's in the right shape for what you need for the race uh disappointing to come out of the start and find that you break your oar at the start it's been happened often enough so please just check it before you get onto the water just at Nagambie the nationals here and it's quite dusty and windy and everyone's doing us a favor by storing your oars on the ground so if you like paying me to uh re-sleeve your oars then keep putting them on the ground because you get sand and grit on the sleeve and it's like sandpaper in the in there and then you'll say the pitch is out so that's not a good thing the other thing is the handles will get stuck because all the grit and the dust and that with the dew will go in there just grabbed off the ground and as you can see i rubbed my hand on it's got all this sand and grit so when you go to launch your boat you put it in the swivel like that because you're launching off the beach and then you slide it out in there and all that sand and grit there now ends up in the sleeve and now you go rowing so at the end of the day is a good idea to get yours up off the ground and just store them on something so that so they're not in the sand in the dirt a couple of other things that are really important as well sunscreen is super important particularly if you're a light complexion but really sunscreen should be worn by everybody because skin cancer is not a good gig second thing is that hydration is critical so make sure that you've got plenty of fluids and you make sure you keep yourself topped up with fluids otherwise you'll find dehydration will damage your performance quicker than anything and you'll end up with headaches and things you don't want so hydration's super important third thing and i see this quite a lot is where we have athletes walking around the boat park in bare feet now that's a pretty dangerous gig because it's quite easy for you to end up with a foot injury uh a stick or a splinter or walking on rocks or even worse so really important to make sure that you have shoes all the time slip slip-on footwear is good crocks anything that you can wear that's that's easy to take on and off i'd suggest is super important and so really important to make sure you look after your health in that way because if you get a foot injury cut yourself on a piece of glass or cut yourself on a rock or or get a savage splinter then you'll find that that's going to impair your rowing ability significantly and very quickly and so i suggest wherever possible and it should be almost always possible i'd wear a pair of shoes of some form slip-ons are good because they're easy to get in and out so a few things to really watch for the regatta make sure you keep out of the sun if you don't unless you have to be in the sun make sure you keep your hydration right and and please wear some footwear and make sure that you don't end up getting an injury