Rowing machines - http://www.rowingmachinez.com

Recent updates in Best Portable Rower For Crew Athletes - Rower

Most Traveled Cities in the United States

• Sep 20, 2010 from pixelstoreus(PIXELSTORE.US) in *
  Most Traveled Cities in the United States
  Masters rowers are a dynamic group who lead busy lives, and careers that take them all over the country. With the opportunity to travel comes the opportunity to see what rowing is like in a different city, and take in some sites, time willing. Boathouse Finder (www.BHFinder.com) provides a very useful geographic search of rowing clubs and boathouse around the country and throughout the world.
  
  If you have any rowing travel-related stories, wed love to hear about them. You can email us at info@bhfinder.com.
  AUSTIN
  Austins Town Lake is arguably the perfect spot to row. The 6 miles of water is dammed at both ends, so there is no strong current. The weather is mild throughout the year, so rowing never stops; in fact the winter is the preferred time to row among local rowers, and spring breakers. There are no motorboats or jet skis allowed (except for coaches launches), so no need to worry about getting waked.
  Rowing Dock is a privately owned, privately managed rowing club and boat rental facility located on the west end of Town Lake. Here the water is calm and the lush banks create a serene atmosphere. It is easy to get to from MoPac or downtown, and it offers a large parking lot. Rowing Dock is open a dock attendant is on duty all year during busy hours to help patrons with boats. With proof of skill and current membership in any recognized club, out of town rowers can rent the recreational single sculling boat. Other patrons may rent from a selection of single, double or triple kayaks or quad water cycles. Check the website or call for hours.
  Austin Rowing Club is a non-profit run by an elected board. It hosts the two major regattas in Austin each year. They offer sweep rowing and sculling. ARC is located in downtown Austin near the Four Season Hotel; if you get the timing of your row right, you could enjoy the nightly bat flight from Congress Bridge, which can be seen from ARC.
  CLUBS ALLOWING GUEST ROWING
  Austin Rowing Club
  Rowing Dock
  Texas-Rowing-Center
  SITES OF INTEREST
  Worlds largest urban bat population under Congress Bridge; nightly flights spring, summer, early fall
  4 miles of Waterfront hike and bike trails around Town Lake
  Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum & IMAX Theatre
  Shopping SOCO and the Drag
  SOCO first Thursday
  (evening shopping, festival-feel)
  LBJ Library
  State Capitol and grounds
  MAJOR REGATTAS
  Fall: Pumpkin Head Regatta; October
  Spring: Heart of Texas Regatta; March
  
  BOSTON
  Boston and Cambridge are rife with rowing history. Nine boathouses line the Charles River. Four belong to clubs: Union, Riverside, Cambridge, and Community Rowing. Five belong to colleges: MIT, Boston University, Harvard, Radcliffe, and Northeastern. Guest rowing can be difficult depending upon which club you contact as some clubs require sponsorship from a member. Cygnet Rowing Club, with two boathouse locations, offers hourly rentals of single sculls.
  Dividing Boston and Cambridge, the Charles River is an elegantly serpentine aquatic ribbon that varies in width from about 200 meters to more than a kilometer. During warm weather, and even not so warm weather, it is alive with all manner of rowing craft, sailboats, kayaks, duck boats, excursion boats, and powered pleasure craft. The round-trip distance from the Science Museum to Watertown and back is about seventeen miles. On the average morning the entire length of the river is rowable, although the chop tends to kick up below the Boston University (BU) bridge after nine a.m. Almost all the college programs have agreed to use wakeless launches, which has maintained the generally flat conditions, and only on impossibly windy days (or winter, when the river freezes) is the entire river unrowable. The scenery along the way ranges from intensely urban to quietly suburban. The river is bordered by Memorial Drive on the north bank, and Storrow Drive on the south, and a bike path runs the entire length of the river on both banks.
  CLUBS ALLOWING GUEST ROWING
  Cambridge Boat Club
  Community Rowing Inc. of Boston
  Cygnet Rowing Club
  Riverside Boat Club
  SITES OF INTEREST
  Boathouses dot both shores from the Lower Basin out to Watertown. Faneuil Hall Marketplace and Quincy Market are hugely popular settings for dining and shopping. Whale watch excursions leave from the inner harbor throughout the day, as to harbor island excursions. Jacques Cousteau once proclaimed that Boston Harbor is the most beautiful harbor in the world as one enters from the sea.
  The Freedom Trail brings history alive for millions every year, while the duck boat tours unite the experience of river and city. The Museum of Fine Arts, Fenway Park (home of the Red Sox), the Boston Public Library, and the Hatch Shell (riverside outdoor performances of all kinds) are just a sampling of rewarding outings awaiting the curious traveler.
  MAJOR REGATTAS
  Fall: Head of the Charles
  Summer: Cromwell Cup
  Spring: Riverside Sprints
  
  CHICAGO
  Visitors to Chicago are often surprised...

Interview with BASE jumper Tracy Walker

• Oct 03, 2010 from weatherforecas
  Interview with BASE jumper Tracy Walker
  If ever there was a BASE jumper deserving a E! True Hollywood Story, that would be the man you recognize by his trademark Take Care, Space signature line.
  Tracy Space Walker, born and raised in the deep south of the United States, is every bit a self made man. He was reared along with an older brother by his single mother and grandmother during the early years of his childhood. It was later, during his teenage years and surviving a heavy handed stepfather, whom Tracy would come to describe as the epitome of evil that life served up some tough knocks. Tracy set out on his own as soon as he was able to fly the coop, breaking a negative cycle in search of a positive life. To hear tales of his teenage years makes one cringe; to know the caring, loving man that he became against the odds, makes one want to sing his praises.
  Ask any of the BASE jumpers who have had the pleasure of his company on a jump, or the opportunity to spend time talking with him and you will hear the same descriptions over and over. Space is the Yoda of BASE, He is a guru of sorts, He mentors the best of the best. As research progressed I soon heard, He is mentor to Felix the glory hound of all glory hounds. I could almost hear the booing and hissing in the background as the words rang in my ears.
  In my first conversation with Tracy I decided to cut right to the chase, flat out hit him right between the eyes, Are you responsible for the monster that is Felix Baumgartner? He laughed and agreed to take full responsibility, before continuing on to explain the joy of having trained such an athlete as Felix. He assured me that Felix is no monster, a bit misunderstood by the general BASE population, has a bit of an ego, (gasp I said, ego in a BASE jumper it cant be) and like everyone else on this planet has made some mistakes in judgment.
  In those few statements alone I gathered a basic understanding on how Tracy felt about mentoring. His love of all things BASE jumping could be summed up in the loyalty and concern he exhibits on behalf of his students. BASE jumping is a serious topic and is meant to be treated with respect. BASE jumps arent just made, they are planned and executed, a spiritual experience to be savored and celebrated.
  He explained the qualities he has seen in each of his students that persuaded him to take on the challenge and responsibility of teaching and which characteristics he admired in them afterward as they matured as jumpers in this manner. Perseverance in the quest for knowledge, he responded, I have had many students, but mentored only a few. Solid rigging skills, the ability to not jump, BASE ethics, and doing jumps that have not been done prior in the sport are characteristics I admire in my former students.
  Do you have basic guidelines that must be met by the student prior to you considering taking on the responsibility of mentoring them? Rigging, tracking skills, canopy control drills, accuracy landings, etc. The amount of skydives is unimportant. What is important is the amount of skydives preparing for BASE and the mentality of the jumper.
  Rigging, scoping out the object and conditions, safety protocols, etiquette, and decision making are the 5 most important things Tracy believes a mentor must teach their student prior to the student going it alone. He adds, of course this is assuming they have their exits sorted.
  I asked him to share his viewpoint on whether he felt it was important for every BASE jumper to have a mentor and how much control or influence does the mentor have over the jumpers activity?
  Its a great idea to have a mentor. There is so much information out there that it is pointless to reinvent the wheel and be a pioneer in ones mind and nowhere else; leading to having an accident. Certain elements of people resent this though and enjoy the higher risk of figuring it out their selves. A mentor does not control a student; they can only hope to have the possibility to influence a student. That jumpers activitys is totally up to them. As to how much responsibility should be placed on the shoulders of the mentor regarding the students activities, None if the student has disregarded the mentors advice. The rest should be regarded on a case-by-case basis.
  The million dollar question being, What makes a person qualified to be a mentor?
  I believe it is the ability to do the following: Teaching: Helping the student to remember a list or sequence. Instructing: Helping the student to employ that list or sequence. Mentoring: Listening to the student and personalizing the teaching and instruction parts to the fit the student. This is allowing the student to analyze and know when to implement dynamically whichever lessons and instructions called for in a given situation. Had he ever turned down a student, I have turned down instructing students because of my lack of time or inability on the students part to achieve the objectives I use as a guideline. In my Euro course, I...