Club members row their way to fitness
CRYSTAL LAKE -- Roughly 30 people, most of them novices, braved the intermittent rain showers on Sunday to attend Crystal Lake Rowing Club's annual Learn to Row Day.
The event was meant to introduce the public to the club's summer 2008 classes.
Participants received a 10-minute lesson before going out on the lake at Main Beach.
According to the club's Web site, Walt Gary, a Crystal Lake resident and former head coach of the Lawrence University rowing team, started the club in 2004. Members began meeting at Duke O'Briens restaurant and pub to draft bylaws, and the first boats were donated by the Clinton Rowing Club in Tennessee.
Today, the Crystal Lake Rowing Club stores boats at Kamijima Park on the west end of the lake, and rowers can maintain their competitive edge year-round at the Dole Indoor Rowing Center in the basement of the Dole mansion, which is across the street from Main Beach. The indoor center, which is where classes are held, contains 15 rowing machines and weight-lifting equipment.
The club offers competitive and recreational masters programs through the Crystal Lake Park District, according to its Web site. There also is a juniors program open to high school students from the greater Crystal Lake area.
With the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing approaching, people are gaining more interest in the sport, club leaders say.
Brett Johnson, communications director for USRowing, the national governing body for rowing in the United States, said people row to stay in shape and maintain flexibility. Members of the association who are well into their 80s have competed, he said. There are an estimated 100,000 rowers competing in the United States.
Leslie Kowitz has been a member of the Crystal Lake Rowing Club for two years. She started by taking lessons from her daughter, who rows competitively for the University of Wisconsin. Kowitz says she started rowing to stay fit.
"It is such a total-body fitness sport. It really is one of the best sports because you can do it competitively or recreationally," she said. "It is great because you can get in shape or you can have kind of a solitary Zen moment out on the lake by yourself."
Arne Arnesen, a founding member of the Crystal Lake Rowing Club, has been a recreational and competitive rower for more than 20 years. He says rowing has a much lower impact than most workouts.
"It doesn't have as heavy duty of an impact on your body as other things," he said. "You still work your legs out, but you aren't pounding your knees and ankles."
By CHARITY BONNER
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