Fun in Large Format

Took advantage of the media lab today to print out a truly enormous picture for our photo board in the hall today; the river shot you see above measures 41" tall by. . . something more then that. Trying to get some of our 'rowing art' up instead of the usual stuff. Not quite sure what I think yet, but I can tell you for sure it looks better in person then via iPhone.

Our trailer is famous. . .

We wish it luck out there.

Going to NCAAs!

What?

No, not the team. Not even me as a spectator, although it should be some excellent racing this year. Lewis & Clark will be represented, however, in the form of our shell trailer. Oregon State is going to both IRA (Sacramento) and NCAA (Camden, New Jersey) and needed a trailer to make the cross-country drive; we were happy to oblige.

My only request is a bumper sticker from Little America.

Got up to work yesterday and this guy was hanging out outside my office window. First time I'd ever seen him (her?). Very relaxed, hanging out on the vent in the sunshine amongst the flowers. It's a pretty good life.

Weekend Racing!

So our season may be done, but college and national team racing around the country is looking fast and furious and it's fun to watch.

Abby did it again-- partnered with Michelle Trannel she easily won the NSR #2 regatta by 9+ seconds and is looking like a solid favorite for a spot in the lightweight women's double going into the summer. Very awesome for a former Lewis & Clark novice, heck, very awesome for anyone!

I spent part of my sunday afternoon watching the action from PAC-10's; aside from the heater of a race for first in the men's varsity one of the best stories to me was the very impressive performance by Oregon State to pip Washington at the line for bronze in the women's 1v. Kate Maxim, a Lewis & Clark Law grad and former assistant coach here, is working with the OSU women and coached their novice boat to a bronze at the regatta as well. It's been fun staying in touch with Kate and watching the development of that program; well done and kudos to them for a great weekend of racing!

Abby Broughton is at it again. National Selection Regatta #2 is underway and once again Abby starts things off well; she's won the time trial and looks to be in a strong position for the rest of the races. I'll post again on Monday to update on how the weekend went.

Dénouement

This word and concept popped into my head this morning. Denoument is a concept I remember from my high school English days and I think it well reflects the last couple of weeks.

I spent yesterday cleaning out our launch dock and prepping our launches to come out for the summer. It's a big summer in the launch world. First two of our boats will be used for the Junior and then Masters Regionals regattas; big three-day races up at Vancouver Lake. As one of the Portland clubs we help support much of what goes on behind the scenes at these races. I'm headed up today to take up a launch and tomorrow to take up another and help set up the racecourse.

The next thing that will happen is the retirement of the Lowe, a 16+ year old aluminum hull that's been a faithful workhorse of our program but has reached the end of it's useful life (it leaks. A lot). In replacement we're getting our first wakeless launch. Given that there's some significant progress being made in turning the back channel behind Ross Island into a wakeless zone this is potentially a much more significant move then I first anticipated when we started talking about this a year ago. The sailing launch, an older Boston Whaler, will also be replaced with a flat-bottom Jon boat similar to the ones we now use. When all this is done we'll have four very usable, very reliable launches every day. I'm not sure what we'll do with ourselves without having to spend ten minutes pumping water out each morning.

Meanwhile work in the office has turned towards recruiting novices from the incoming freshman class and starting to identify expereinced prospects for matriculation in Fall of 2010. The nature of working at a college is that everything is seaonal. As one season ends we move on to the next.

The nice thing is that all of this takes up much less time then practice so I'm finding time to recharge my batteries as well; the bike has found the road again, and with nice weather forecast for this weekend I'm looking forward to some time on the back porch in the sunshine.