Week 6, Hilary Term

    My good friend Elliot (a 3rd year Physicist) coxing W1 this afternoon

A.k.a. Torpids.

After 6 weeks (plus a few days) of training, Torpids has finally arrived! Throughout this term I’ve been rowing in seat 6 in Mansfield’s W2 boat, which has been a great fit for me (minus the track bite (bruising) I’ve been getting from this particular seat’s less than stellar hardware).

Unfortunately, the English weather has been even less kind to Oxford rowers; since the beginning of term we’ve had a really difficult time getting any practice on the water, due mainly to a dangerously high water level and its accompanying increase in stream speed.  To make up for lost outings we’ve been spending some extra time in the erg room, and also opted to make the one hour trip to Dorney Lake with the top four men’s and women’s boats two weekends ago. Visiting Dorney was a pretty cool experience, since it is the location where the rowing competitions took place during the 2012 London Olympics. It was also, though, ‘cool’ in the literally sense: very cold, very wet, and a trip that required multiple changes of clothing per person. But huddling together for warmth helps facilitate team bonding, right? Regardless of the miserable weather, I do have to admit that many of us were happy to finally get some practice out on the water.

Post-Dorney we had hoped the forecast would lighten up a bit, but had no such luck. IWL-D (our second and last time trial before Torpids) was cancelled, and the W3 boat did not even get a crack at their qualifying race during Rowing On this past weekend because of the stream speed. W2 boats were allowed to race, but, to our dismay, the rocky waves and racing stream made for a more difficult piece than we had expected; not only was our stroke person ill, but after catching a crab that lead to one of our boat mates getting knocked repeatedly by her oar in the face and body, we were forced to finish the race rowing only with 7 people. We found out a few hours later that we were only 4.5 seconds from qualifying (and that’s with 7 rather than 8 people!); though we were disappointed with the outcome, we were at least left with the confidence to know that we were a solid crew and had managed to pull hard through the end in spite of our bumps and bruises.

Now that rowing has essentially ended for us W2’ers (minus a few workouts here and there to maintain our fitness), we’ve been left with a little extra free time to go and support the other boats racing on the river this weekend. Torpids began today and will run through Saturday, and involves what Oxonians call ‘bump’ racing rather than typical side-by-side racing. Instead of using up a hefty chunk of my (already broken) word limit to explain to you the logistics of bump racing, I refer you to the following videos:

A good example of when a ‘klaxon’ (warning horn) is not blown early enough to prevent a pileup crash.

And my personal favourite: Mansfield’s Men’s boat getting ‘bumped’ (more like utterly destroyed) by St. Peter’s (if you listen really closely, you’ll be able to hear a fellow in the background scream, ‘GO PETER’S! GO PETER’S! NOOOO PETER’S!’).

In essence, the goal is to physically ‘bump’ the boat ahead of you with any part of your own shell. You bump someone, you stop racing and hang out on the side of the bank until the end of the race; you get bumped, you keep on racing, trying to bump anyone in front of you. You bump all four days in a row, and you get blades (akin to winning, though more than one boat can get blades)! So that’s Oxford rowing, for you: super fun, but utter ‘carnage’.

Stay tuned for next week’s post about MCBC’s performance at Torpids and the Mansfield Ball!

Cheers,

HRH

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New Words of the Week: Torpids Edition

car•nage adj. or n. – damage, collisions, danger, chaos, and anything involving the injuring of Swans (at least when you’re on the Isis)

e•jec•tor crab n. – exactly what it sounds like: when a rower catches a crab, gets caught by the backswing of their oar, and is subsequently ejected from the boat

klax•on n. – an electric horn or warning hooter used during Torpids to stop a race for any reason, most especially safety

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