From spring on, there will be a rowing gig on REC for anyone who wants to learn to row
From spring onwards, a rowing boat will be moored at the Amsterdam Business School. The boat was tested last Saturday by students from Computational Social Science during the Grachtenrace, an annual rowing race across Amsterdam. Four questions for the student behind the initiative, Tobit Kayser.
What’s fun about sloop rowing?
“It’s great fun to see the city from a different angle. And the rowing itself is fun: you use your whole body. You do it with a team, so it’s good for team-building, although that does depend on the weather. If it’s raining and windy, it’s more stressful and that can affect the mood.”
Last Saturday you also had a downpour during the Amsterdam Canal Race and rowed more than 20 kilometres through Amsterdam’s city centre. How did that go?
“None of us had any rowing experience, so it was quite tiring. We started training in mid-September, once a week. Especially in the first few sessions we made big strides in technique: you have to learn how to take a stroke, and then everyone has to do it in at the same time, so that took a while. Your hands also have to get used to it; at the start they were already hurting after five minutes. But we crossed the finish line, and I’d call that a success.”
The sloop will now be moored at the Amsterdam Business School on the Roeterseiland Campus. Who will be able to use it?
“The idea is that students from Bloom, the study association for Computational Social Science, will be able to train in it after lectures. Other students can also get in touch with me in the spring via their student society. Then we can make arrangements about who can use the boat.”
“The boat doesn’t actually belong to us, but to Cor, organiser of the Amsterdam Canal Race. During the winter, the boat will therefore be temporarily moved back to his place, to a dry spot.”
Suzanne Hansen, Head of Partnerships at Computational Social Science, hopes to see a rowing community on the Roeterseiland Campus. Do you share that dream?
“That would certainly be cool, but time and the number of participants are limiting factors. We always need eight participants for a training session. I also think students will mainly focus on individual events, such as the Amsterdam Canal Race. There’s also another event in Muiden this year, marking the end of the sloop rowing season, but that falls on Halloween. Bloom hasn’t received enough sign-ups for that yet, so anyone interested can still get in touch with me directly!”
