Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
August 6, 2009, Washington Post

Getting Out on the Water, All in a Row

The Anacostia River will be a playground for Washington area kids Saturday. The Anacostia Community Boathouse Association is sponsoring its third annual Youth River Sports Day to introduce kids and their parents to the fun sports of paddling and rowing.

If you show up at the Anacostia Community Boathouse, you will get a chance to look at some really cool boats. Instructors will be there to give lessons on the basic skills of paddling and rowing. You'll also learn the special language and commands that go along with life on a boat.

Then you will be out on the river. Don't worry; the dragon boats and outrigger canoes are big and can carry from six to 20 people. They will have a mix of kids (wearing life jackets), adults and experts on board, so everyone will be safe. Jennifer Ney, the president of the association, says the river near the boathouse is calm and quite beautiful. So be on the lookout for wild birds, such as herons and ospreys.

For people who don't want to do the hard work of paddling, there will be tours of the river on pontoon boats provided by the Anacostia Watershed Society, an environmental group that works to protect the river.

Rowing, in which teams race in long, thin boats, is one of the fastest-growing sports in the Washington area. More high schools are offering rowing to their students. Gonzaga College High School, which rows out of the Anacostia boathouse, won the national scholastic championship for eight-man boats this year.

I spoke to Marc Mandel, the Gonzaga coach, and he says rowing is a terrific sport for kids for several reasons. First, you don't have to start early to become a good rower. Most rowers start in high school. "So if you haven't found a sport yet, you may want to try rowing," Mandel says.

Rowing also teaches teamwork. Mandel calls rowing "the ultimate team sport." Any four- or eight-person boat is only as good as its weakest rower. So everyone has to help.

And as with most endurance sports, such as swimming, cycling or long-distance running, the harder you work at rowing, the better you will get.

The only problem is that rowing can be very expensive. Mandel says that eight-person racing boats can cost about $40,000.

But the Youth River Sports Day is free. So go down to the Anacostia River on Saturday and explore a part of the city that too many people forget. It will be a fun day on the water.

And who knows? You might find a new sport.

Fred Bowen writes KidsPost's sports opinion column and is an author of sports novels for kids.

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