We get the very best out of our athletes with the aim of winning medals and titles at the New Zealand Club Champs held in February each year. Training starts in September and the National Champs are held the week before university starts in February, so it is definitely possible to row and still make it to uni in time for O-week!

While we train hard on the water, club rowing is also about having a good time off the water. We have a senior leadership group who are responsible for ensuring that all of our rowers have an awesome time while they are at the club. We pride ourselves on the community and culture that we have established at CRC over the past few seasons, and our active "social calendar" plays a big part in that. Our club rowers organise regular events such as BYO dinners and tramping trips. This really is a club for the rowers, run by the rowers. We are here to train hard, race hard, and have an awesome time with the squad while we do it.

Our club programme caters for all abilities - we have novice, intermediate, club and senior rowers in our squad.

We love getting beginners out on the water at Canterbury Rowing club. While high school and masters rowing programmes are already booming in New Zealand, our specialty is getting people involved that fall into the gap in the middle. We take on people ranging from those who are just finishing high school through to people in their mid 30s.

In 6 months of training we can take you from no rowing experience at all through to racing and competing for medals at the New Zealand Club Champs. Our past novice rowers have included university students, teachers, tradies, young professionals and high school leavers. There is no "type" of person that rows, you just have to love working hard and getting fit.

If you think rowing could be the sport for you, get in touch with us and we can sort out a time for you to come down and check out the club. Most novices start in September, so coming along to our open day on the first weekend in September is a good option. Our aim is to provide an entry-point for new members of the public to learn and develop the basic skills of rowing. There are no upfront costs or commitments for the first few sessions, just come along and have a go to see if rowing is for you.

You've got nothing to lose so head over to the contact page to get in touch!

Our intermediate, club and senior athletes are right at the heart of our club. During your time as a club rower you will develop more than just fitness, great friends and world class rowing skills. You will learn to self manage your time, work in a team with people of different backgrounds and ages, how to fend for yourself (there aren't any parents to cook your food at camp or regattas!), and generally how to become a fully functioning adult member of society.

The new members to our club squad each year include, school leavers, rowers new to Christchurch, former rowers looking to get back into the sport, and our novices from the previous season. The senior, club and intermediate rowers all train to make the top crews and compete at the National Championships in February. We compete throughout the year at local regattas in a range of boat classes.

A quick word for the year 13 school leavers… With such a range of ages and experience in our club squad it is unlike anything you would have experienced rowing at school. We think it is a real shame that so many school rowers drop out of the sport before they get to experience what club rowing has to offer.

Make sure you come down and check out what we have on offer at the beginning of the season. Whatever your goal is, be it to train hard and have a good time, win medals, or to push on to represent NZ on the world stage, we can help you achieve it.

The club rowing season is from early September to mid-February. This is when the bulk of our training and regattas are, however we also do some winter training. Get in touch anytime before September to join us. Most of our training is completed on the water out of our boat shed at Kerrs Reach in Christchurch. We also do some training on the rowing machines (also at the Reach) and weights sessions at Atlas Gymnasium (Sydenham). We mix it up too, sometimes going for hill runs, bike rides, day walks in the hills. We also like to get out and about with on water training sessions at the Waimakariri River, and other nearby training locations. Our usual training times are 5:45pm after work, or 5:45am before work, as well as a weekend morning, with specific days scheduled to suit the group and coach.

Someone who is just starting out in the sport who wishes to be competitive in the Novice grade (for first year rowers) will probably start off with novice squad training 3 times per week, building up to around 5 times per week as the season progresses. Club rowers who are a bit more used to the training load that comes with the sport will start off with 4-5 sessions, and build on that number through the season (if you've rowed before you know what its like in the couple of months before your big event).

Most regattas are held in the weekends and are both days (travel Friday night and return to Chch after racing on Sunday PM). We do have an annual training camp in early January for 5-6 days which we encourage everyone to attend. The season culminates for the club squad with the National Champs which are held over 5 days in February. We release a calendar at the start of each season that outlines all the regattas and dates through to the National Champs.

Josh Schmidt
Head Coach
headcoach.crc@gmail.com

Angus Coull
Club Captain
clubcaptain@canterburyrowingclub.org.nz