Photograph by Dai Sugano

Ted Koen, 12, helps carry his team's racing boat, called a shell, back to storage after a day on Lexington Reservoir.

Making Waves

Los Gatos Rowing Club teaches kids how to row

By Shari Kaplan

Whether it's the day-camp experience or the more traditional sleep-away kind, the stories of summer camp's good and bad points are usually pretty similar.


Photograph by Dai Sugano

Rowing teaches young people the value of teamwork and perseverance.




The stories of the students who attended the Los Gatos Rowing Club's first summer rowing camp for youth, held at Lexington Reservoir in two sessions, July 12-16 and 19-23, are as different as earth is from water. When these kids go back to school, they'll be talking about ergometers, coxswains, shells, oars and sculling--terms of which they gained firsthand knowledge this summer.

For its maiden voyage, the weeklong day camp for boys and girls entering the seventh and eighth grades attracted some 25 to 30 eager participants from various South Bay cities--a fairly good number, according to Mimi Braatz, who assisted her husband Skip in his duties as program director.


Photograph by Dai Sugano

Rowing camp participants steady their boat in the water before climbing aboard.




"It went well enough that we hope to have it again next year. This is something completely different from most camps," Mimi said. "Many of these kids have been baseball-camped and soccer-camped to death. Everybody here starts out on the same level. We've even found that some kids who might not necessarily excel in standard organized sports do really well in rowing."

The Braatzes organized the summer rowing camp to appeal to pre-teens and young teenagers interested in finding out more about the sport of rowing. Among other things, students learn how to cooperate with their peers; study rowing via handouts and informative videos; discover the hows and whys of racing shells, the type of boat used for competitive rowing; develop proper rowing techniques both on and off the water; improve their physical fitness; and, at the end of the week, use their newfound skills in invigorating races against each other.


Photograph by Dai Sugano

It's fun but challenging work to carry oars, as Allison Williams and Carrie Gordon, both 12, discover.




"A lot of rowing is muscle-memory. You do it over and over again until it becomes automatic," Mimi explains. Along with honing this skill on the water, the students also practice their technique and improve their endurance using ergometers. The "erg" is a specialized rowing machine comprising foot straps, a sliding chair, oar-like apparatus and a digital readout. As for another unusual term, coxswain, in the sport of rowing that is simply the person in charge of steering the shell.

"For some of the kids, rowing camp may be the first and last time they [row]. But for others, it may be the beginning of what will become a lifelong interest. You never know who the bug will bite," she adds. Mimi knows of what she speaks, having seen many rowers improve their craft. She has been involved with the Los Gatos Rowing Club since Skip founded it in 1979.


Photograph by Dai Sugano

Skip Braatz, program director of the Los Gatos Rowing Club, calls out directions to his young rowers.




The club, in its high school program division, has over the years taught more than 2,000 young men and women how to row, sending many on to colleges and universities to row competitively. The high school program boasts many awards, including a gold medal in this year's Junior National Championships. Along with its high school and now middle school programs, the club also offers--and has for many years--rowing programs for adults.

---

For more information about the Los Gatos Rowing Club and its programs, call Skip Braatz at 998-8945.

---

Council sends apartment proposal back to Planning Commission

Space exploration is a worthy pursuit

Obituaries

Picture From the Past

Sports Briefs

Dammit Run returns for 26th year

Courtside Tennis Center sends teams to junior championships

Photo: Little League 'Black' all-stars

Photo: Little League 'Orange' all-stars

Photo: Local soccer star Marcia Wallis