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| Chris Lloyd, Bumbury RC, Masters Sculler |
First some context - I am an E masters rower and have its less than four and a half years since my first Learn to Row. I have been fortunate to have dedicated and enthusiastic coaches over that period - especially Nancy Churchill, Director of Master Rowing WA, for the past two years.
My main motivation for trying the RANDALLfoils was the awareness that my bow blade was too deep during my drive, and although I had improved things to some extent it was still an ongoing problem. They solved the problem almost straight away, and I am hopeful now that I am developing muscle memory so that if I do have to use a set of oars without foils then I should still have the blades in a good position. I am looking forward to seeing my data from the NK Empower Oarlock when I try that with my oars & foils in the coming weeks, as I suspect that the slip figures should improve. Subjectively I feel more loaded on the drive with the foils on ; but it will be nice to have some objective data.
So how did my races go? I was happy with the majority of my rows. There was a firm headwind that got stronger and swung around a bit as the morning went on, but I didn’t feel that the foils were affected by the wind at all. I was pleased with my first race (C1x) and it was the first time I have held my course in the middle of the lane for an entire race. I credited that to the foils and the even blade depths, so that was a bonus. Second race (E1x) wasn’t as good but by then the wind had picked up and was blowing more diagonally. The third race was a C2x and went well. By that stage was a bit tired and had the occasional false stroke but I found with light hands the blades with the foils tended to correct themselves without too much trouble. Overall I was really pleased with the foils, and will continue trialing them over winter.
Chris Lloyd, Bumbury RC, Western Australia.
