1,400 rowers seek national titles on Green Lake

For years, Tim Davies' sport of choice was rugby.

But the resident of Westport, Conn., needed a change that would eliminate some of the pounding his body was taking.

The 59-year-old Davies turned to Masters rowing five years ago and joined the Saugatuck Rowing Club. Now, he travels just about anywhere to compete.

Davies and 60 other Saugatuck Rowing members were at Green Lake on Thursday to compete through Sunday in the U.S. Rowing Masters National Championship Regatta.

"Most people take it [rowing] up while they're still in diapers," said Davies, one of 1,400 competitors taking part in the first national rowing championship conducted in the Seattle area in 21 years. "But I just started. I like it because it's a non-impact sport, and it's one of the best overall exercises you can get.

"It takes endurance and strength. You push yourself to the edge physically."

All of the competitors this weekend push their limits in 1,000-meter races in various categories designated by sex, weight, rowing style and types of shells.

"Rowing power comes from the legs, and most people don't realize that," said Davies, a native of England.

Connecticut-based Saugatuck Rowing has one of the largest contingents represented on Green Lake for the four-day competition. Two of the 61 members drove the club's trailer full of boats some 3,000 miles in 44 hours, trading shifts at the wheel so they didn't have to stop.

"Wherever you go, it's about friends," Davies said. "It's about getting out on the water at 5:15 in the morning. Some people commute to work in New York back home along the Saugatuck River.

"Our club is an enthusiastic club. I'm probably the fittest I've ever been."

Fitness is the main reason 60-year-old Al Mackenzie, president of the Lake Union-based George Pocock Foundation that promotes the sport, keeps rowing when he needs a break from his Federal Way dental office.

"My health is a big reason I do this," said Mackenzie, who rowed at UW and qualified for the 1972 Olympics. "It's about maintaining a fitness level for our season, which goes from April through November."

Mackenzie has advice for those who first might be overwhelmed by the numerous strokes it takes to negotiate 1,000 or 2,000 meters on the water: Break the daunting task into smaller portions.

"I count 10 strokes at a time and then throw them away," Mackenzie said. "It's helpful if you keep it in small bites. It's 10 strokes at a time that way. You inch your way through the racecourse."

Sara Lopez, who coaches Masters rowers for Seattle's Conibear Rowing Club, said that most competitors work toward that perfect moment of rowing as a team. Not unlike a 300-yard drive in golf or a ringer in horseshoes, team rowers strive to synchronize their strokes perfectly.

"It's what keeps people coming back," Lopez said. "It's the closest thing to being in the zone."

Notes

• Holy Names senior-to-be Lindsay Meyer was one of the spectators Thursday. The 17-year-old Meyer became the first female sculler in U.S. history to medal at a junior world championships on Aug. 5, winning the bronze in the women's single sculls at the 2006 FISA World Rowing Junior Championships.

Meyer was on the shores of Green Lake to watch her mother, Carol Nagy, compete with her four-person team.

The four-day event concludes on Sunday and is the first national championship in rowing conducted in the Seattle area since the National Women's Rowing and College Women's National Championships on Green Lake in 1985.