Casitas Rowing

Year Round Teams & Programs

Casitas Rowing has several ways for adults to become involved either as rowers or coxswains.

Our Adult teams have 2-3 coaches, and is roughly divided up into 3 groups of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Rowers.

YOUR TEAM for ADULT ROWERS and COXSWAINS 

*** For more info, and to get started Call Coach Wendy at 805-642-2288 or email wendy@casitasrowing.org.

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BEGINNER / NOVICE ROWERS:
Beginner novice rowers learn in a no-pressure environment at a pace that is right for them. They are practicing at the same days/times as our intermediate and Advanced athletes, but in different boats and with your own coach. Rowing is a very challenging sport (much harder than it looks on youtube or in the movies!), but we all support each other and improve. As soon as rowers are ready, we move them up in boats with other athletes of similar fitness and technique. Typically athletes are with this group anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. Most of this is done in sculling boats (two oars per person), and we cover the basics of rowing language, basic drills, water safety, boat handling, rowing technique to help people get comfortable, and of course, how to start making boats go fast. 

Private Lessons – These are available to all athletes. Sometimes once people get started they feel like they want some private coaching from an instructor to improve, we can set up 60: or 90: minute lessons with an instructor through our Program Coordinator Wendy at 805-642-2288 office … or 805-258-8622 cell for text /call. 

INTERMEDIATE ROWERS:
Our intermediate rowing group has a wide range of skill, fitness levels and goals. We do lineups for practice and at regattas so athletes are in boats with other rowers of comparable skill and fitness level as best we can. This is a coed class, comprised of both recreational and competitive athletes. Some will chose to attend races, and some will not. There are athletes in this level who just this year have taken up rowing, and others have been rowing for decades but maybe their fitness / rowing skill is still developing or they just really enjoy rowing for recreation and prefer not to race. 

ADVANCED ROWERS:
Many in this program have come to us with previous collegiate or high school rowing experience, or, have been on our masters team here at Casitas for over 8 years. Practices are geared toward top-end fitness and developing gold-medal boat speed of our crews. Boats are balanced, and we use elite-level equipment including new RESOLUTES, Empachers, FluidDesigns, and Concept2 oars. This is a competitive group and it is understood that in addition to training with the team, rowers are able to do some outside workouts on their own such as erging, running, and/or weight training. Several of our athletes cannot attend all 3 scheduled practices, but, they are instead doing training on their own at the gym etc. Athletes need to have a higher level of fitness (regardless of age) to handle the training level and higher stroke rates, be able to contribute to the speed of the boat, actively help balance the shells, plus, be coachable and a positive team player.

There is no place in this club for bad attitudes, negativity, or “clicky” behavior. Other sports / teams might have this, we do not. We are one team, and support each other. This is a club of people who love to come to practice. There’s an excessive amount of smiling on our teams :-). 

This program focuses on rowing technique, boat handling, water safety, plus fitness training on land and on the water doing low aerobic, high aerobic, AT, interval workouts, anaerobic and power development training. Especially coming into racing season, the focus shifts over to mostly fitness and speed development. 

While all our masters programs are co-ed, about 90% of the time we do separate athletes into men’s boats and women’s boats at this advanced level. 

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Adult Team Practice Schedule:

• Tuesdays …. 6:30am – 8:10am (Meet at lower boatyard)

• Thursday …. 6:30am – 8:10am (Meet at lower boatyard)

• Sunday ……. 7:00am – 9:00am (Meet at UPPER boatyard)

People who need to jet to work etc. can leave at 8:10, others are asked to help close up after practice and that often goes to 8:25 or so. Many people leave practice and go right to the lake’s Marina Cafe for breakfast and coffee together :-). 

Our teams practice in singles, doubles, pairs, quads, fours, and eights. No problem if people don’t scull yet. Lineups change each practice depending on who has signed up that day. We do row in light rain and light wind, but, that isn’t very often. Practices do sometimes get cancelled for weather and unfortunately we can’t offer dues refunds because of weather cancellations.

You will find all of our masters teams very welcoming. Adult rowers participate at a level they can. We understand that adult rowers have lives outside of the sport and making it work takes a lot of juggling. Once people get started practicing though, they usually want to make this a big part of their life, every week.

*** For more info, and to get started Call Coach Wendy at 805-642-2288 or email wendy@casitasrowing.org.

Also see: Private Lessons