Curlew is a rowing club in East London and is open to all ages and abilities. Although very successful, with crews at Henley for 10 of the last 11 years, we pride ourselves on our friendly and welcoming atmosphere.
Four Curlew rowers and a cox capsized at the London Regatta Centre and climbed out of the cold water onto London City Airport land.
Given the extreme conditions on Saturday we are relieved that all of the ladies have fully recovered, and would like to express our sincere gratitude to the staff at London City Airport, the London Fire Brigade, the London Ambulance Service and the Metropolitan Police for their timely and professional assistance.
The incident has been reported to British Rowing and is under thorough investigation in order to ascertain the precise chain of events and ensure that the appropriate actions are taken to reduce the risk of such an incident happening again.
Please direct any enquiries to the Curlew Club Captain Paul Williams.
Firstly, no circuit training session tonight - the hall is apparently being used by the school so our Wednesday booking has had to be cancelled. Try doing some cross-training to make up for it - I’ll be going for a bike ride, Nick will be running and Dave will be doing an ergo! Back to normal next week (Wednesday, 14th October).
Secondly, the clubhouse bar is open from 6.30pm on Thursday night. So after your weights and ergo, head along to the clubhouse for a pint or two!
Oh, and thirdly, all of these items can be found on the new club calendar.
Calling all those interested in rowing: if you were captivated by the sight of so many rowing medals for Team GB at the Beijing Olympics, or if you’re just interested in trying out a great team sport where you can have fun and maybe compete in a regatta or two, then we want to help you achieve that.
Starting in October, Curlew will be running another of our very successful and enjoyable rowing courses for beginners: in just a few fun sessions you’ll learn to row and you’ll get to take part in one of the best team sports! While we can’t promise that every day will be gloriously sunny, we can guarantee that you’ll love it!
The idea is to start with an initial introduction session where you can decide if the sport is for you, followed by a 12 week program which should get you up to a level where you are able to compete at novice races - we will aim for regattas in the season from March to August as a goal for the course.
It is worth noting that to get the most out of the course you will need to be able to make as many sessions as possible - rowing is largely a team sport and therefore some level of commitment is required. In particular for the weekend sessions it will help if we know in advance (a couple of days notice) if you’ll be coming or not so we can organise the equipment and crews appropriately.
The details of the course are as follows:
Program:
Saturdays, 10am-12am, Rowing at the London Regatta Centre, Royal Albert DLR Station
Tuesday evenings, 7pm-8.30pm, Rowing Machines/Rowing in indoor tank, London Regatta Centre, Royal Albert DLR Station
Wednesday evenings, 7pm-8pm or 8pm-9pm, circuits at George Green School next to Island Gardens DLR or a 3-minute walk from the Isle of Dogs side of the Greenwich foot tunnel (optional)
Thursday evenings, from 6.30pm onwards, land training at our gym in Greenwich, if you would like to join us (optional).
Start date: 24th October 2009 - 23rd January 2009 (ie. 12 weeks, with a two-week break for Christmas from 20th Dec to 4th Jan)
Cost: £140 to be paid at the start of the 12-week programme. The introductory session is free.
Coach: Gustavo Salcedo, assisted by members of the current Curlew senior squads. Gus will be coaching at almost all training sessions - he has spent the last few years as a professional coach in London, whilst in his days as an athlete he represented Peru on the water at the 2004 Olympic Games. The most recent course was the first that Gus had taken charge of and it was the best one yet: we’ve had fantastic feedback from everyone on the course and 75% of them are now full-time members of Curlew.
If you are interested, please let Nick Jupe and Laura Binns (the men’s and women’s captains, respectively) know, and send an email with the following details:
- Age?
- Any rowing experience?
- Height?
- Weight?
- Your Fitness Level (from 1 to 5: 1 for no regular exercise, 5 if you exercise/train 5-6 times a week, perhaps as part of another sport)?
- Can you swim 50m wearing light clothing?
This is just for our info at the moment - should the course be heavily oversubscribed then we may need to limit the number of attendees, which would happen after the initial introduction session (but before any money is paid!)
The club is also looking for new coxes. It’s a vital role in the sport, so if you’re reasonably small and you think you would like the challenge of steering an 18-metre rowing boat while getting 8 rowers to perform at their best, then please let us know. We can train you pretty quickly and membership of the club is a nominal £5/month for coxes (and you’re welcome to join in at gym and circuits sessions as part of that). It’s an exciting job and a great way to get involved in the social side of rowing.
Wednesday 23rd September from 7-8pm and 8-9pm at George Green’s School: (sorry, not Wednesday the 16th as I originally wrote here - apparently there’s some school function which means that our booking has been shifted back by a week) first circuits session of the new season - we’ve booked two sessions in the hall to accommodate the numbers expected to attend. The circuits classes are a fantastic way to get fit with your friends and are easily worth the monthly subs alone - I’ll see you there (and please be there 10 minutes early, kitted up and ready to go - you wouldn’t want to miss out on any of the exercises!).
Saturday 26th September at 8am at the London Regatta Centre: Athletes’ meeting for the new season down at the docks. The new captains and our coaches will lay out their expectations for the season and you get to talk to them about what part you want to play in it. It’s really valuable if everyone who wants to row for Curlew this year can attend, so that plans can start to be laid. The first water session starts immediately afterwards.
The Curlew Annual General Meeting took place on Saturday 5th September 2009 at the Clubhouse. After a brief review of the season, the elections for committee positions were held, a couple of points were raised about our plans for next year (including squad structures, coaching staff, coxing vacancies, regatta entries and club expansion possibilities) and then the bar was opened up.
Enormous thanks to all those who have served the club so well over the last year, and congratulations to those who were elected to the committee this year (see the Committee page for a complete who’s who); the first sommittee meeting is on Tuesday the 7th of September.
Venimus, vidimus, vicimus ... well, at least a bit.
Curlew had a string of excellent results at Oxford City - winning pots, quarts and blades over the course of the weekend. (Even the weather smiled on us, although certain people who forgot to apply suncream won’t remember that as a good thing.) See the 2009 results page for a full write-up, but suffice to say that it was a great finish to the season.