Happy New Year from LOCR!
The Catch Issue #6
LOCR Newsletter
January 15, 2024
*photo courtesy of Martin Stabler
Upcoming Events
1/20 10:00 a.m. • MANDATORY youth athlete and parent meeting regarding spring season • Row studio
2/3 • LOCR River Cruise • Invitation open to all athletes and families/+1s
2/13 • LOCR Monthly Board Meeting 7:00 p.m. • Row studio and by Zoom
2/20 • Spring season begins at LOCR
2/24 or 2/25 • Ergathon Fundraiser (all teams) • Save the date
Call to Action!
Youth Parents: Varsity and some Novice rowers will require a Passport (or a Passport Card) to participate in the Brentwood Regatta in Vancouver, BC this spring. Please apply ASAP as they take several weeks to process.
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/need-passport/under-16.htmlEveryone: Register for auto-renewing subscriptions. Read all about our transition from per-season billing to monthly subscription below!
Tentative Youth Regatta Schedule for Spring 2024
Coaches are solidifying their plans for spring sprints. While details are coming together, for planning purposes, a rough schedule for the coming season is below. Please stay tuned for further details and please plan to attend athlete and parent informational meetings in the coming weeks.
3/2 - Scrimmage at Vancouver Lake. Varsity, Novice, and middle school crews.
3/17 - Burton Beach Invitational Regatta, Vashon Island, WA. Varsity and Novice crews.
3/25-3/29 - Spring training (local)
3/30 - Vancouver Lake. Varsity, Novice, and middle school crews.
4/13-4/14 - Covered Bridge Regatta, Eugene, OR. Varsity and Novice crews.
4/27-4/28 - International Brentwood College Regatta, British Columbia, Canada. Varsity and select Novice crews. YOUTH PASSPORTS WILL BE REQUIRED for this travel.
5/17-5/19 - US Rowing Regionals, Vancouver Lake, WA. Varsity, Novice and select middle school crews.
June 6-9 - US Rowing Youth National Championship, Sarasota, FL.
Masters and Collegiate Regatta Schedule is in the works. Please stay tuned!
But for now…
Masters
April 13-14 - Covered Bridge
April 20-21 - * Lake Stevens (TBD)
May - TBD
June 21-23 - Regionals. Dexter Lake
Collegiate
March 9 - Logger Regatta (college)
March 16 - Local Scrimmage (college)
April 13-14 - Covered Bridge (college)
April 26-28 - WIRA (college)
IMPORTANT Changes to Membership Plans
In an effort to reduce overhead related to registering each season, LOCR is implementing a change to programming fees. Beginning with spring season, memberships will be auto billed monthly. Payments during the current month are for next month’s rowing (e.g., March rowing is billed in February). This is similar to how other gym and club memberships are handled. Members can cancel their membership at any time and finish the current month of rowing. This will eliminate the large payments each quarter and significantly reduce the manual work done each season by staff, and will not require any action (continual re-registration) by members that row with LOCR each season. Membership costs are not expected to change based on this new model and fees are calculated based on “dock time”/selected programming. This change takes effect for spring season. Please note the following deadlines, as if you miss the monthly payment cycle, you can not start until the following month.
Youth or Masters can join before 2/1 and start NOW if not already signed up for winter. There will not be any additions to winter after January.
Youth signed up up for winter, sign up between 1/15 - 2/15 to ensure your enrollment in spring season starting on 2/19.
Masters signed up for winter, sign up between 2/1 - 2/28 to ensure participation on 3/1.
Cruise the Willamette with LOCR!
On Saturday, February 3, between 5:45 and 8:30 p.m., LOCR will cruise on the Crystal Dolphin. We’ve been missing our rowing friends this winter season and hope you will join us for an evening out on the river to dine and socialize together. Tickets will go on sale soon and there is limited seating. All are welcome—youth, family, friends.
Boatswain Training
LOCR’s first Boat Maintenance 101 Workshop for master rowers was a great success! Now that we have one boat under our belt, we'll be starting to move a bit more quickly and hopefully manage 2-3 boats at the same time instead of all hands on one shell. Our hope is that some of those that came to this first session will come to future sessions as we get the information percolating through the group!
We are always looking for Masters, Youth, and parents who would be interested in helping with our winter fleet maintenance program. We need everything from organization, cleaning, minor repair, and painting. Join the #boat-maintenance channel in slack or talk to your coach about helping out! Stay tuned for future sessions coming up soon.
If you participated in the recent workshop, kindly complete the survey so we can consider and incorporate your feedback. Link here: Boat Maintenance Workshop Satisfaction Survey
LOCR Masters All Stars
While the rest of us may have been watching Hallmark holiday movies and drinking hot toddies, a few of us spent A LOT of time on the erg this holiday season logging meters for Concept 2’s 2023 Holiday Challenge. Way to go (and thank you for the kick in the pants to train harder)!
Thank you to our Boys in the Boat LOCR Exhibit volunteers! It was a challenging time of year given the holidays to solicit help to support our exhibit at the theater, and we appreciate those willing to help with recruiting efforts. We met some interesting folks and it was fun to see people try the erg for the first time. Please be on the lookout for future volunteer opportunities, including regatta support and other recruiting events.
P.S. We are excited about snagging the gigantic Boys in the Boat movie display from the theatre, and its new home will be at LOCR’s Row Studio.