Boating Disaster

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days, I have been busy. Hopefully I will be able to make up for it this weekend.

Today, we had a very unusual assembly in school this morning. A man from Langstone adventure rowing club came to talk to us. The club row on the open waters in my area. They use large, wooden boats called "Gigs" that are designed for rough seas. The club have trained people for many competition and other events, such as when a group of celebraties including Davina McCall rowed across the channel for sport relief. They came to talk to us because the school has arranged for 12 of us to go and have rowing lessons during PE with the club and maybe even enter some competitions.

After the talk, we went out to have a look at a Gig. We were asked if any of us wanted to sit in the boat. Me and a boy in my year volunteered. I managed to climb in without incident (pretty impressive when you consider that it was all wet and slippery and I was wearing a kilt). We sat on the seats and were given an oar each. They were not as heavy as I was expecting, but then we did not have to hold them very long.

We had a go at rowing, and I came very close to whacking the oar into a pillar. Then we were told to carefully rest the ends on the floor with the handles still in the boat. Unfortunately, when I put mine down, it continued to slide all the way out of the boat until it hit the floor, with the whole year watching. Luckily, the £350 piece of equipment was not broken, and I was able to jump out of the boat without further incident.

Have you ever tried rowing? Do you recommend it?