Crew season is now in full swing! There were many new additions to the crew team, including a boatload of freshmen. The freshmen competed in their first regatta on February 11^th, 2012. Sydney Korsunsky, a freshman, was nice enough to share her experience with us.

“My first regatta was February 11^th.  The freshman girls were: Elizabeth Donoway, Siobhan Boroian, Kylie Cawely, Alexandra Fouquet, Gabi Izhakoff, Sloane Gevinson, Gabriela Alboucrek, Jennica Anglin, Yamile Godoy, Perri Kessler, Yael Lederman, Rayna Lunn, Kerry Farlie, and Nicole Gutierrez. We drove up to Orlando the night before since we had a very early start in the morning. The bus ride was fun; everyone was watching movies, eating, talking, and laughing, We got to the hotel, ate, got our room keys and roommates and headed off to sleep. I roomed with Nicole. We woke up at 5:40 to get ready and head off to the race site. By then I had begun to really worry about the race. How hard would it be? Are the officials mean? What if screw up? It was hard not to think of everything that could possibly go wrong.

We got to the race site and started to unload the boats and rig them, which didn’t take too long. Then we got our line-ups. Turns out, I was in the very first race. My teammates and I went had a quick snack before the race, then met up to warm up and get a motivational speech from our coach. Warming-up helped a little bit, both for the race and in general because it was cold. The wind was freezing, and I couldn’t help but shiver and hug myself to gain some ounce of warmth. Finally, we headed off to launch the boat. My line-up and I carried the boat down to the dock, launched, and then we were on our own. We originally planned to do some drills and starts on the way to the starting line, but things didn’t go as planned. The waves pushed us onto the actual racing course, so we got yelled at a bit. We finally steered away but headed into a marsh, where we were stuck for a few minutes. Luckily, some nicer officials helped us, and we eventually got on our way again.  All that mattered was getting to the starting line. Turns out, when we finally got there, a different boat was not only in our lane, but was in the wrong race. After some time, they got out of our lane, and lined up.

The race started as soon as we were lined up, so we barely started on time with the call. As soon as we did though, my mind was only on the race. I tried desperately to keep in time with the person in front of me. I was closer to the front, so it wasn’t too hard. I pushed with every ounce of strength I had; all the while Sloane, the coxswain, screamed at us to pull faster, harder, anything to get ahead.  The water sprayed at me, which didn’t really help the cold issue. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was the race. At one point, somewhere in the middle, someone’s oar got stuck in the water, or crabbed. It took a few minutes to fix, and then we were pulling and driving until the finish horn sounded—we were done. I didn’t even realize until then that the skin on my inner thumb was peeling.

We ended up coming in last, but none of my teammates were really upset. It didn’t matter that we finished last because knowing that we tried as hard as we could, no matter how far behind we finished or how soaked and chilled to the bone we were, was a great feeling of accomplishment. I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself. We finally made it back to the dock (which took about twenty minutes because of the wind and waves) and gathered in our tent to eat and warm up. As we sat in a big circle, drinking hot chocolate, wrapped up in blankets, and talking about the race, I realized why I was so happy. Being a part of the crew team, or any team at all, really just gave me warm, fuzzy feelings because I was a part of something special.  That feeling of community and kinship is one of the best feelings in the world. Yes, we were tired, wet, and cold, but we shared a really great experience. I’ll definitely remember it for a lifetime.”