One of the things I like scratch that.. Love about the sport of rowing, is the community of rowing. This I have been reminded of twice in recent times, the first instance has been when I put a call out to fellow rowers in Seattle, to see if anyone would allow me to sit in a shell, whilst travelling away from home. I was overwhellemed by the response.
Not only did i get responses from coaches, and athletes in the city I was travelling to, I was contacted by some of the biggest names in rowing, and given contact details of people they knew in the city I was travelling to.
At first this doesn't seem out of the ordinary, but it struck me that there is not that many sports or hobbies that you could do this with. I thought about it, and realised that it isn't like you could just rock up at a Football club, and go 'Ahh guys can i train with you 2 days this week'.
The second was one day when i was travelling to work on the train, and I was wearing one of my rowing shirts - you know the ones we all have them, the ones we have bought/been given over the years for the various clubs, organisatins, etc. When a complete stranger started to talk to me, asking if i rowed sweep or scull, which club i was at etc, i sat there and instantly made a new friend, he was a tourist from overseas, who had recognised me as a rower by my shirt, so he decided to have a chat. Again this struck me that not many sports could claim to have the same community spirit where two strangers would happily chat, based off of a shirt.