Both international and US rowing rules state that you only need a coxswain in order to be placed. It’s mostly youth and a lot of college competitions that don’t let you jump out of the boat on purpose. At the elite levels, I’m pretty sure they assume you know what you’re doing by then. 
Two minds, one thought… and only one of us, namely you, versed in the proper terminology. By “pulled her oar” I meant removed it from dragging and gotton out of the way, not continued to compete. I believe we’re actually in agreement as to what we’d like to have seen her done.
I say for the rest of the race she should have balanced the oar on her nose and clapped like a seal. At least with it going straight up it’s out of the way.
I see it more as the difference between a young man and one who has had more life experience and is more aware of his mortality. Ask any guy who did something heroic or tough when he was a kid if he would do it again and he’d often say no. Had Achilles lived long enough he too might have been heard saying, “That was bloody stupid!” about some of his exploits.
True. And people’s self reports are not always to be trusted.
I don’t know about America, but in Australia jumping out of the boat for any reason is an automatic disqualification, so I doubt that was an option for her no matter what happened.
Could make for an interesting game of one-upmanship.
Fujimoto: I nailed a dismount from the rings with a broken leg.
Sublight: I jumped into the Charles River. And I held my head under.
Fujimoto: Whoa…
I’m also having trouble envisioning how one could jump from the middle of an eight-man without creating an even bigger dirsuption for the other rowers.
Careful, sublight, the executives from *Endurance * are going to steal your ideas and you’ll get zilch.
Normally, you’d be right. But we’re talking about something really bad - like a bent rigger that wouldn’t allow you to pull your oar out of the water.
The easiest way to do it would be to simply undue your foot straps and then just fall out of the shell - almost like scuba diving. That probably wouldn’t disrupt the set too much. You couldn’t stand up and literally jump out without massively disrupting everything.
There is a “dramatic” sculls race in the lame flick “The Skulls” with Joshua Jackson where some guy’s oar breaks and they do just that.
As **Neurotick,/b] described, the guy sort of crounched and “rolled” head first into the water as if he was doing a somersault like a little kid on a front lawn.
Granted in was a movie so their boat was probably being towed by a winch… but it gives you the basic idea.
Yeah, I mentioned that movie earlier. (I saw it with a group of rowers when it came out and we laughed through out. The coxswain is this 180 pound guy? Yeah, right.) They really are rowing tho’ so they must have taught Joshua Jackson the fundamentals. And the teams they’re rowing against are the real Yale and Harvard teams. But if you look closely you’ll see that they’re not really rowing very fast or hard. And the single person boat Joshua Jackson rows to the climatic showdown at the end of the movie? It’s an Aero, a line of boats for beginners. Most people only row in 'em for a month or two before they advance.
I mentioned the jumping out of the boat thing but it is really rare. Most rowers know somebody who was supposedly on a team where it happened so it may be more lore than anything else. But it’s a legendary example of heroism and realizing that helping the team win is the goal. Which is where Sally Robbins failed. Not only did she not finish the race, she didn’t do anything to help the team finish the race. Maybe not jumping from the boat (that close to the finish line, it may not have helped) but sitting up, instead of lying on the rower behind you and controlling your oar would be a big start.
It’s interesting how she’s getting a lot of sympathy and support from the general public and mostly derision from the rowing community. I think most rowers are used to pain and sacrifice. One of the members of my teams best quad, was thrown from a horse shortly before the national masters (master means over 27 and over) regatta last year. Despite some rib pain, she rowed the race anyway because she didn’t want to let down her team mates and they got the gold in a tough race. After the race, she found out that her ribs were actually broken. We’re all in awe of her but not surprised. That’s what top level atheletes do and that’s what makes Sally Robbins look so bad in comparison…
wow, a thread I started actually got to two pages. I can die happy now…
Like I said before, in Australian rowing getting out of the boat in a race for any reason disqualifies you, so unless they train the olympic teams with different rules it was never an option for her.
The hell?.. What is wrong with me. Do you have any idea how many times this week I’ve gone through a thread post by post and still missed stuff like that??? Wonder if I’m doing something weird with my scrolling at work… It’s pissing me off in any case.
Anyway, IIRC they did in fact row a fair bit at a club near St. Catharines, ON, for the flick. He rowed his ass off. Joshua Jackson is much taller in real life than you’d expect and is a decently athletic guy. (Well, I dunno about currently, but he was at the time.) I’m pretty sure they also dragged the boat for the closer shots, though I may be mistaken. I’ll have to ask Sniffs_Markers.
Great; I can see it now. She gets three-quarters of the way down the aisle, then collapses, falling backwards onto the bride’s aged relative and causing an instant heart attack.