Steven Boydston

Review of Texas Rowing Center

Sorry, this will be a long review so I can describ...

Sorry, this will be a long review so I can describe the whole Introduction to Rowing process. I rowed in an 8 in college (13 years ago) but really wanted to get back out on the water and learn sculling. So, my girlfriend got me a gift certificate for my birthday...the classes aren't cheap.

I called the boathouse on a Saturday to schedule the 3 "private lessons" instead of the group classes. First call, I was put on hold for 10 minutes (not actually on hold, they just put the phone down). Second call, they answered and said lessons were early Thursday mornings, then put me "on hold" again while the guy talked about his yogurt in the fridge, I eventually hung up... Finally called a third time the next day and spoke with someone who convinced me to just do the group class instead of the private lessons. As apparently the private lessons aren't really private... or lessons.

Each group lesson is an hour and a half with two instructors (assuming they weren't running late). First lesson was spent with 10+ other people watching a video from the early 90s, listening to the coach tell you about how to carry the oars, and sitting on an erg.

The second lesson was spent watching the other 10+ people, one by one, sit in the dock trainer while they figured out how to row. This by itself isn't terrible, except once you get past an hour of standing around watching the same thing over and over, while being eaten by mosquitoes, I really just wanted to leave. We also sat in a boat during the second lesson, for no more than 4 minutes, and we never left the dock.

After the second lesson I called and let them know this isn't what I wanted, and they agreed to let me do 3 "private" lessons instead. Great! So 7:00AM on Saturday I show up, the coach I'm working with had no idea I was coming. He is also running the front desk, handing out equipment and helping the other 10 boats going out. Suffice it to say, there was relatively little actual instruction during the hour and a half, luckily he did let me go out on the water in a short circle near the boathouse. Of course, this was after he cleaned the dust and spiderwebs off the boat.

The second private lesson included another 20-30 minute video from the 90's on technique, then a 5 minute pep talk and I was sent out on my own. At least being on the water that time of day is amazing, and I was able to practice and coach myself a little.

For the third and final lesson I was relatively excited to hear they would let me join their "new crew" team for a practice on the water (with a coach!) at 6:30pm on Friday. I showed up early and talked to two staff members, no-one knew what I was talking about. Eventually, the coach came around and let me know we wouldn't be going out on the water, it was land practice on the ergs. The ergs are in horrible shape, squeaky, poorly lit, and they weren't able to find a computer for me with a working battery. I was pretty pissed at this point, but shut my mouth got a little bit of a workout and the coach offered to have me come back another day.

4th and final, (final) lesson was at 6:30am on a Sunday. There was one coach and a supporting coxswain for 15 people. They were able to let me take out a single, there was also a 4, and an 8. While this was the closest thing to what I had been hoping for all along. It is really tough for 1 coach to work with 5 different boats though.

Long story short, if you have a pulse, care about how you spend your time and money, don't like waking up at 5:30AM to go to your lesson, or in general value your time, there's a brand new boathouse on the other side of town that couldn't do an Introduction to Rowing any worse.