So last week, as you saw if you follow me on Instagram, I went to New York for the launch of Jack Carlson’s book, “Rowing Blazers“. I received an invitation back in early August and decided pretty much immediately that I was going because … how often do you get an opportunity like this?

The party was held in Midtown at the Ralph Lauren Polo flagship store on 55th and 5th Ave. and, despite the space feeling unbearably small at the time given the number of people that were there, I don’t know if they could have chosen a better place to host this crowd. Throw in some beer and cocktails (Pimms, of course), lobster rolls, and a live band and you’ve pretty much got the Henley Royal Regatta crammed into 30,000 square feet. Everyone who owns a blazer was wearing it (I get the impression they don’t get to take them out of their closets too often…) so it was neat to actually be able to see them with all their aggressively bold colors and patterns in person. I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the overall atmosphere but being 4’11” at a party where the average height was probably around 6’3″ made that kinda impossible.

Related: A History of the Rowing Blazer

The book itself is actually pretty cool although I’ll admit I was (very) skeptical at first. What sold me on it was the stories alongside the photos that discuss the history of that club’s blazer, where the colors and design came from, what the various embroidered emblems mean, etc. I’m a total sucker for stuff like that so after reading through several pages of the book while on the subway I was hooked.

One of the things that really interested me was the introduction where Jack (a former BB&N and Georgetown coxswain) goes into the sartorial history of “the boating jacket” and how its origins as part of a rower’s uniform, “to help keep [them] warm during chilly training sessions on the River Cam and on the Isis in Oxford”, have become what we and all the men in our lives now know as the “blazer”.

Related: Toasting ‘Rowing Blazers’ at Polo Ralph Lauren

One of the highlights of the night for me was getting to meet Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, both of whom co-hosted the party with Jack. Not only did I want to get a picture with them because, let’s be honest, the height difference is amusing, but I also really wanted to know their thoughts on the writers of “The Social Network” having Armie Hammer say “we row crew“. They both chuckled and said exactly what I think we were all thinking when we heard that line – “It’s just not what rowers say!”. They were great to talk to though and I appreciated getting to spend a few minutes with them.

Previously: Books on Rowing, pt. 1

There’s sort of a theme with these ones in that three of the books are written by the same author and two of the other books are written by rowers who competed together.

Seat With a View

A book with that title could only be written by a coxswain, right? This one was written by Steven Segaloff, the coxswain of the men’s 8+ between 1993 and 1996. The emotions in this book range from ecstatic with a win at the World Championships to the lowest of lows following a loss at the Atlanta games, both things I know we can all relate to. One of the things I’m really looking forward to reading in this book – and one of my favorite things about “real” stories – is the inside scoop. This would be a great book for coxswains because a) there aren’t many books out there written by coxswains and b) it’d be a great opportunity to get inside the head of someone who shared the same ambitions that most of us have.

Four Men in a Boat

As several other firsthand-accounts do, this book talks about the tension leading up to a big race (the 2000 Sydney games), the relationships between a rower, his teammates, and coaches, his struggle to make the team, and in this case, all the drama surrounding one night at a boat club party involving booze, broken glass, and a severed tendon that nearly cost this rower his spot in the boat. Something he’s quoted as saying is that it didn’t feel like everyone was in the same boat until they had a pre-race talk the night before their Olympic final. That’s pretty powerful. If you saw the Gold Fever documentary that BBC did, this is that same crew.

Related: Gold Fever

Assault on Lake Casitas

This is probably one of the most well known books about rowing. Written by former rower Brad Alan Lewis, this book chronicles what it was like trying to earn a spot on the 1984 national team. The 1980 team didn’t travel to Moscow and he knew competing in 1988 would be tough due to his age (he would have been 34), so 1984 was it. Twice he failed to make it before finally earning a spot on the team in the 2x with his partner, Paul Enquist. If you’ve trained hard for a spot in a boat and had it slip away by slim margins (like 0.9 seconds), you’ll most likely be able to relate to this book. Hard work and commitment do pay off and BAL’s story is proof of that.

Wanted: Rowing Coach

This book is another by Brad Alan Lewis and is a dated, journaled account of the year he decided to coach at UC Santa Barbara with their men’s club team. I think the best description that I read of his experience was “Stuff happens. Some good stuff, some not so good, pretty much all of it interesting.” That alone makes me want to read this book because I think every coaching experience I’ve had so far can be summed up by that same sentence. If you’ve ever wondered what’s going through the minds of your coach(es) at any given point in time, this is definitely a book you should check out.

A Lifetime in a Race

Matthew Pinsent is one of the legends of rowing in the UK. Four Olympics, four Olympic golds, 10 World Championship golds, two Boat Race wins … he’s done, seen, and experienced a lot. If you watched Gold Fever you kind of got a sense of how obsessive these guys were with their training and how downright brutal it all was, which is why I think this would be a good read for high school-aged rowers. There’s a big difference between what you perceive as being “obsessed” when you’re 16 and how you perceive it when you’re 30. He also talks about rowing with Steve Redgrave (the ultimate British rowing legend), the buildup to Athens, and what it takes to be a champion. Coming from someone as successful as him, his words are worth their weight in gold.

Lido for Time: 14:39

The last book on the list is another written by BAL and another that I can’t wait to read. The book consists solely of excerpts from his training diary between October 1983 and the Olympic games in August 1984. As he says, it includes “plenty of elaborations, insights, explanations are included, plus an exceptional waffle recipe.” One of the best quotes I’ve seen from this book (and trust me, there are so many) is this one: “If you want to be your best, spend a lot of time exploring what is more than enough. Push yourself until the bar is lying immobile across your chest. Push yourself right off the edge of your capacity.” A rumor I’ve also heard is that if you buy the book and then email Brad (his address is at the end) he’ll send you DVDs of his training footage and the heat, semi-final, and final of his Olympic race. (Edit: Confirmed. Bought the book, got the DVDs.)

Image via // @petereed

A few weeks ago I was asked about “rowing books” and which ones were worth checking out. My coaches in high school made the point that in order to gain a real appreciation for the sport you’ve gotta spend time learning about its history, the people, etc., which was something that always stuck with me. Below are some books that I’ve enjoyed that all have a “historical” perspective to them, with the time periods of each ranging from the 1930s, through the 70s and 80s, up to as recent as 2007.

The Amateurs

“The Amateurs” is about four guys training for the Olympic trials in Princeton for the right to represent the US in the single at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. It talks a lot about how rowing is a sport where you’re only famous amongst each other – there are no lucrative contracts or multi-million dollar endorsement deals and the only people who really know your name are your teammates, competitors, and coaches.

Another thing it talks about is “being the best”. If you’re going to the Olympics, obviously you’re one of the best but if you’re in the single, you are the best. There’s only one of you whereas those who aren’t selected will have to contend with rowing in the pair, four, or the quad and sharing the glory with someone else. In the single, the glory is all your own. Because of that, the book also delves into the psychology of the athletes and how their brand of motivation is much different than those of us in sweep boats.

The Last Amateurs

This one is about the 2007 Boat Race, specifically the time the author spent with the Cambridge team, studying and noting their every move for the duration of the year leading up to the race. The forward is written by Sir Steve Redgrave, who makes a very good point that I think illustrates why the competition is so fierce in this race – in any other race, there’s a silver medalist but in this race, there isn’t. There is no silver medal or second place – you’ve either won the race or you’ve lost it, and that is something that will stick with you for the rest of your life. Those who compete are literally defined in life by whether or not they won against the competing Blue Boat.

The Boys in the Boat

Written by a guy who’s never rowed or been in a boat before, “Boys in the Boat” is about the University of Washington crew that competed at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, in front of Hitler, and won gold. This was a shock to the world because the rowers that comprised this crew were unlike any other rowers currently competing in the sport, either at home or abroad. Unlike what Washington’s current persona gives off, this is a legit underdog tale that’s intertwined with a lot of fascinating history about the sport and the development of rowing on the west coast.

I’m currently reading this at the same time I’m reading The Amateurs and, as I previously mentioned, The Amateurs talks a lot about how rowing isn’t a big name sport and it’s lucky to get a paragraph written about it in the newspaper. The Boys in the Boat, by stark contrast, talks consistently about how big rowing used to be in the national media – it was comparable to any major sport being played today and got just as much attention as most major sports do now.

The Red Rose Crew

This is one of the (very) few books on rowing that highlights the participation of women in the sport. “The Red Rose Crew” is about the formation of the first women’s crew to compete internationally (at the 1975 World Championships and the 1976 Olympics in Montreal) and talks about the obstacles they had to overcome in the mid-70s right after the passing of Title IX, which is what paved the way for the introduction of women’s rowing. They had to overcome the obvious obstacles of everyone doubting them, including their coach, who didn’t think that women could handle the rigorous amount of training it took to become a competitive crew. That coach, by the way, was Harry Parker.

Blood Over Water

This one is co-authored by two brothers, David and James Livingston, who both competed in the 2003 Boat Race, which if you remember from this video I post in February, was one of the most epic races in the entire history of the race. In addition to that and all the other drama that happened right before the race (of which there was a lot), what made the ’03 race unique was that it was the first one in over a hundred years where brothers were competing – and not just competing together but competing for opposing crews (David studied at Oxford and James was at Cambridge).

Similar to The Last Amateurs, this story begins a year before the race and chronicles each brother’s progression into their respective boats while at the same time focusing on something that is undeniably a central part of the story – the relationship between the two and how it was affected and strained by the pressures of the race. At one point they stop speaking to each other although the media hype made it difficult for them to ignore each other completely. The book itself is broken up into narrative sections, each one narrated by a different brother telling his point of view of what was going on at the time, which helps to give a really well-rounded look at the race and everything leading up to it.

Mind Over Water

Normally I’m not one for anything or anyone that tries to derive life lessons from something or over-analyzes “personal growth” because so often it comes off as trying way too hard, which admittedly at times this one does too, but I kind of just got this one. To understand books like this you have to look past the cliches (of which there are many) and really apply what’s being said to your own life and situation(s). When you do that it’s a lot easier, in my opinion at least, to get the message that the author’s trying to convey.

There are three sections to this book, each one relating a different part of rowing to one’s own life. The first part is about finding your way, the second about balance, and the last one about giving everything you’ve got to achieve the endgame. Several people mentioned in the book are familiar to the Boston scene and were also central figures in the The Amateurs. What I like about this book is that it kind of puts into words the transformation everybody goes through from the time they start as a novice to when they’re a few years into the sport and start to really feel the effect that rowing has had on them, not in a physical way but in a more emotional, developmental way. It’s an oddly personal read, which I think is great because it gives everyone an opportunity to take something different away from it.

Next up: Books on rowing, pt. 2