The Black Strokes Next Awfully Big Rowing Adventure…

In late May as part of their buildup to the Rallye, Liz and Tina took part in the Row for Ray, a three day charity fund raising 141 km row down the Waikato River from Cambridge (near the home of New Zealand rowing, Lake Karapiro), to the mouth of the Waikato at Port Waikato.  Both Liz and Tina felt very encouraged afterwards that their preparation for the Rallye was on track.

During the Rallye we were a little surprised to be asked a few questions about the Hoea Kaha (in Maori “strong paddle”), a proposed rallye style event down the Waikato along much of the Row for Ray course.  It was the first we had heard of such an event, but the more we heard, the more we liked.   When the topic came up at our recent reunion it wasn’t long before we decided that the Black Strokes next outing would be in the Hoea Kaha.  Liz, Tina and Chris B have committed to the venture and found several other volunteers from the North Shore rowing club.   We’re one of six teams committed so far to the event. (There’s also a Facebook page: search under Hoea Kaha).

Unfortunately, as there’s no towpath alongside the Waikato, the ability for cyclists to follow the boats is limited although several roads and cycle trails do run nearby.  Nevertheless the Hoea Kaha offers a great opportunity to row down New Zealand’s longest river in an area which is rich in Maori heritage.  Staying at a Marae is a quite unique experience and something of a right of passage for Maori and Pakeha alike.

The Hoea Kaha also has one big advantage over the Rallye; no locks, just Taniwha, perhaps.

Liz at stroke checks for Taniwha during the Row for Ray

“We’re putting the band back together”

Almost as soon as the Rallye finished (or before in Chris B’s case) we scattered to the four winds and it was a while before everyone returned to New Zealand.  Naturally, a reunion was in order for a thorough de-brief of our “Glory Days” and also to think ahead about our next adventure.

So the other weekend the Black Strokes and Spokes reassembled in Auckland and using the wonder of modern technology were joined by Cynthia and Emile via Skype.  A grand time was had by all (along with good food and wine including a nice Beaujolis), and plans were hatched for a comeback.

The Blackstrokes and Spokes including Cynthia and Emil via Skype in the Pool Room with the cup donated by the Mayor of Toulouse.

Back on the water

Liz and Tina started rowing together in 2009 in preparation for the World Masters Games to be held in Sydney that year. In the New Zealand National Masters Championships at Lake Karapiro they won gold medals in a double and as part of a female quad. Unfortunately, Liz then contracted pneumonia which ruled her out of the World Masters Games. Although Tina made two finals at the Games Liz’s absence left too big a gap.

In 2010 Liz and Tina retained their National Masters title in their double and added another in a mixed quad (Tina for good measure picked up a third gold in a mixed double). However, injuries intervened to rule both of them out of competing at the 2011 National Masters Championships.

With blisters healed and bums restored to normal Liz and Tina were feeling pretty fired up as they set about adding to their medal collection at the 2012 National Masters Championships back at Lake Karapiro. They were unsuccessful first up in their double but in the F Grade mixed quad, and with the same crew as in 2010, won one of the best races of their career beating seven younger crews in the process. Small wonder everyone had wide grins afterwards. Liz and Tina weren’t finished there each finishing up with three golds with Liz collecting a silver medal as well.

Winners are grinners: Liz and Tina with teammates Eric (left) and Tony

 

“He moemoēa he ohorere” While you were sleeping

Naturally, the Black Strokes remain world famous in Germany, well Stuttgart and Breisacher at least. Stuttgart is about 150 km from Frankfurt-am-Main where the international book fair is taking place from Wednesday (10th) until this Sunday (October 14th). Why are we talking about this? Well New Zealand is the guest of honour at this year’s fair, so if you want to get a taste of New Zealand culture the Frankfurt book fair would be a great place to start.

The Book Fair’s website has a number of videos about New Zealand including this one about the Transit of Venus

Enjoy!

“In, out, shake it all about” – Navigating the locks

Quite apart from keeping fit and rowing fast, a key component of success in the Rallye was manoeuvring the boat in and out of the water. It took us a little while to get the hang of this, rather perversely in part because our large shore crew meant we occasionally got in each other’s way. We got better with practice, as you do, but Georges K’s arrival on Wednesday helped considerably.

One of the complications was that more often than not there was no nice pontoon, or obvious mooring point available. With fifteen boats jockeying for position whilst also trying to avoid the various barges and pleasure cruisers on the canal it was often a case of finding any available site with a reasonably smooth bank and giving the incoming boat enough time to stop. More than once several boats misjudged their approach with varying degrees of damage to the bowball resulting.

The trick we learned was to quickly unload the trolley and the crew before swinging the boat back out to an approximate 45 degree angle. The boat’s bow was then lifted high out of water and placed on the trolley. A second lift then re-positioned the trolley near the boats centre of gravity, after which it was easy for just two or three people to run the boat past the lock. Where it was less than a kilometre or so between locks, as was frequently the case on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was faster to not bother relaunching the boat but keep runnning. The shore crew usually took care of the boat at this point, with the rowers enjoying a brief respite on the bikes.

Here are a few photos illustrating the process, courtesy of Pierre Allard who was “embedded” with the winners, La Dépêche TASL during the Rallye.

Getting back in the water on Monday afternoon (Rowing Club de Paris to the left)

Lifting the boat out of the water at Carcassone on Wednesday lunchtime

Meanwhile, La Dépêche TASL put more distance between themselves and the rest of the field

Like some strange tortoise, Fred and his wife carry his scull whilst wheeling a bike

As Andre watches in the foreground the Blackstrokes manouevre the boat out of a chaotically crowded canal on Wednesday afternoon.

“Now, can we put our feet up?”

Rather like the TV series M.A.S.H., the creation of this blog has taken longer than the events it portrays but now our journey is almost over. After prize-giving Chris M headed off to Glasgow (?!) whilst the majority of the Black Strokes and Spokes finally put their feet up in relief….

Tina and Terry meantime headed off to Nice and then Milan before heading back to Auckland where Tina had an urgent appointment hob-nobbing with Olympic Gold Medallist (and bloody nice bloke), Mahe Drysdale

“Paint it black” Le Jersey

After the main prize-giving was over we made a special presentation of one of our T-shirts to André as a thank you for his generous hospitality and the marvellous organisation of the Rallye.   Liz swears that André had a tear in his eye afterwards but I’m not so sure as it was a rather dry and dusty venue.

Right from the outset our T-shirts had been the subject of much discussion and were in great demand for swaps from the other crews.   We were often asked about its design and the meaning of the various symbolisms on the T-shirts which Liz, together with her daughter designed, so here’s the story.

Black has been the standard colour for almost every New Zealand representative team since the first New Zealand rugby team toured Britain in 1905 and were christened “the All Blacks”.  The silver fern (on the left sleeve of the T-shirt) is a tree fern common throughout New Zealand.  A silver fern was on the original All Blacks jersey and it appears on the jersey of every New Zealand representative team.

The motif running down the right-hand side of the shirt is the Maori symbol for travelling safely over water.  On the back of the shirt, in the centre, is the symbol for the Canal du Midi itself.

As for our name, “the Black Strokes and Spokes”, well in the tradition of the All Blacks (by the way no-one in New Zealand ever refers to them as either “New Zealand” or the “New Zealand Rugby Team”), most New Zealand representative teams have a nick-name.  This involves some variation on “Black”, “Silver” or “Fern”, with the latter usually reserved for the female teams.  So, the womens’ rugby team (also world champions) are the “Black Ferns”, the mens’ basketball team are the Tall Blacks, whereas their female counterparts are the Tall Ferns.  (It does get a bit silly at times; apparently, the badminton team are officially called the “Black Cocks”!).   The exceptions to all this blackness are the men’s soccer team who are called the “All Whites” and the women’s cricket team, the “White Ferns”.

“This is going straight to the pool-room” – Prize-giving

We’re going to need a bigger pool-room

“This is not a race to perfect your rowing skill. It is a regatta to celebrate the camaraderie of rowers.” Not for the first time, Pascal from Marne & Joinville nicely summed up the ethos behind the Rallye. Everyone might be very competitive on the water but the advantage of a multi-day event is that there are better opportunities to make friends. Those who, mistakenly, equate sport with winning (yes I’m looking at you, Murray Deaker), would probably blow a gasket to hear that every team in the Rallye was presented with a cup together with medals for each team-member. Yet it perfectly fits with the ethos underlying the Rallye.  We did finish ahead of Pascal and his colleagues, ending up ninth overall with a time of 19 hours, 21 minutes, 55 seconds, about 2 hours and 20 minutes behind the winning La Depêché crew.

At Friday night’s dinner, André presented the André Dandine cup, which is awarded to the team exhibiting the highest standards of sportsmanship throughout the Rallye. This went to the two Stuttgart crews who were always competitive on the water but good company off it.

On Saturday the Mayor of Beziers together with a couple of officials responsible for sport in the region showed up at the start of prize-giving but, perhaps wisely, left for another appointment before we could add them to our collection of mayors.

Note: the quote in the title of this post is from the wonderful Australian film The Castle which is probably as good an insight into our (usually) endearing neighbours from across the Ditch (the Tasman Sea) as you’ll find.

And now for something completely different…perhaps

The Rallye was over but we weren’t done with the rowing just yet.  Traditionally, on the Saturday after the Rallye finish the crews take part in a mini-regatta on the River Orb by the clubhouse of the Aviron Club Biterrois (Beziers rowing club).  The races are short and sharp, maybe only 400 metres and quite a few mix and match crews are formed specifically for the regatta.  The infection in Liz’s hands meant she couldn’t row so Tina joined Georges K’s A.N. Moissac crew, who, obviously impressed by her finish to the Rallye, put her at stroke.  Meantime, Cynthia was delighted to be asked to row with the specially commissioned “La bota des femmes internationales” crew. 

By now everyone had started swapping shirts and with several crews sporting Black Strokes & Spokes shirts it was a little hard to tell the teams apart.  Top marks for style go to the Paris US Metro crew’s with their matching oars and row-suits and their “retro” boat.   Everyone raced at least twice and the racing was fast, furious and fun.  It was also, with the coxes shouting continuously, rather noisy (the German crews being the loudest).  The Stuttgart crews were keen to add some more silverware to their collection, so donning their best row-suits they went hard at it.  However, the single scullers Jose and Fred had combined with a couple from Rowing Club de Paris to put together a pretty sharp crew.  They comfortably beat Stuttgart Blue in the semi-final and then held off Stuttgart Green in the final.   After which everyone readied themselves for a final, huge, lunch and prizegiving. 

The aqueduct carrying the Canal du Midi over the River Orb is just after the finish line for the regatta

Cynthia (behind stroke) in La bota des femmes internationales

Tina (wearing a Lyons top), with Georges K behind her in the Association Nautique Moissagaise boat

The stylish Paris US Metro crew head for the start

Luc, as ever, keeps a watchful eye on proceedings

Stuttgart Blue celebrate finishing.  Either that or they’re practising their lineout drills.  Manu and Pascal with Tina

Food, glorious food

“An army marches on its stomach” some famous Frenchman is alleged to have once said (although it does seem an awfully slow way of getting around).  Rowers have a pretty legendary appetite and cyclists are not far behind. Fortunately, the Rallye’s catering was up to the test with food which was not only plentiful but tasty underlining the virtues of slow-cooked meals prepared with fresh ingredients.  We also enjoyed the food in several interesting and picturesque venues.  Here are a few highlights.

The team gets ready to tuck into a cassoulet at Castelnaudary at Tuesday lunchtime

Wednesday evening’s salad accompanied by another delicious casserole

Lunch time at La Redorte was in amongst the wine vats.  It was nice and cool, a welcome relief from the unremitting heat and sun

We really enjoyed the food and apertifs provided by the mayor of Ventenac.  It was one of the nicest settings too.

Friday lunchtime Chris W, Pete and Terry greatly enjoyed this very smooth, very drinkable 10 year old merlot supplied by Pascal from a local vineyard his family used to own.

You need a couple of BIG frying pans to cook paella and chicken for 100 hungry rowers.

  We’re not sure if the fish was caught in the canal but it does look very edible…