Mine has been a life immersed in rowing since I was 14, but the thing is, you can begin at any age.
I met Barbara Hogan while I was coaching at Craftsbury Outdoor Center in Vermont last summer. This rowing phenom, then only 78, would have kicked my 55-year-old fanny had we raced side by side. Luckily, I could coach from the launch and didn’t have to try to keep up.
Michael and Winter Robinson took it up in their 60s and 70s, respectively. They love the quiet meditative side of the sport, rowing on the Saco River in Maine. Their homestead, which sits on a quiet inlet, features chickens, gardens, and a barn full of every kind of boat you can think of.
I coached my friend Amy Mitchell’s son for years, and finally she was ready to get in a boat herself. When Amy called and said, “You’re going to think this is a crazy idea, but could you photograph me on an erg on the lake?” I said, “Tell me more.”
“Well, I’m about to turn 60,” she said, “and I don’t want to be a wimpy 60-year-old. I want to be a badass.” So we took my lights, camera, and her erg to the lake. It was March in Maine, so we were out there with the ice fishermen at sunset. We got only a few funny looks.
While Barbara loves to row hard and compete, Michael and Winter just love to have another way to be in nature. Amy appreciates both sides of rowing. Being on a lake in Midcoast Maine, with plenty of competitive rowers around her, she can watch the loons, eagles, and osprey or train hard with the other masters rowers in her club.
That, I think, is the magic of this sport. You make it what you want and need. You can begin very competitively and ease into a more relaxed routine as life gets busy. Or you can keep that competitive spirit going and have that place to release your daily frustrations and find those few perfect strokes each time you get on the water.
Whichever way you decide to approach the sport, there’s a place for you, and you will always find people to inspire you to carry on. I told Barbara that I want to be just like her when I grow up.
See the entire feature and more photos in the December issue of Rowing News.
Author and Photographer Amy Wilton is a rowing coach who lives in Portland, Maine. She’s been rowing, coaching, and photographing the sport for decades and is working on a book of photographs of athletic women over 50 titled Powerful. She is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in art and design through the Transart Institute, based in Liverpool, England.
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