Weekend Work

In an attempt to fulfill my volunteer hours I committed to helping at the Rowing Club of Saarland (via a colleague at work).  I rode my bike from the dorf to the club in Saarbruecken this Saturday.  I recently bought cool new pedals and a handlebar stem which I was happy to test out.

Unfortunately, it was a little bit cold and windy.  It didn't, however, stop me OR these wild and crazy guys who were riding a beer-keg-bicycle and singing merrily down the path:

The Rowing Club is pretty massive and top-notch- in true German Verein style.  It has over 400 members and is currently being renovated in preparation for part of the German Olympic Rowing Team, which will be based out of Saarbruecken.  I don't know anything about rowing, so it was fun to talk to passionate people and to see how orderly this club was.

Here is an indoor rowing/pool used for training:



Before I got to work sanding and moving heavy boxes, I watched one of the 8-man boats launch:

It is a massive, old and wooden boat

The group had unfortunately miscounted and was a man short right as they were preparing to get underway.  My keen counting skills had made this discovery shortly before, so I was in position doing jumping jacks and subtly flexing my back-muscles from my observation post on the dock. Sadly I wasn't picked.  A group of the older men petitioned for me to join, but a small minority couldn't handle the idea of complete beginner skipping training and going straight to the big leagues. They rowed 1 man short.

I enjoyed doing the manual work, it's been a while since I've done anything mindlessly productive.  The people were also nice, and it seems that if I stick around, they might let me take a lesson or two and train with them once in a boat.  I'm hoping it works out because it looks like a wonderful sport!