Month: August 2020

Rowing PEI is very fortunate to have had another successful application to the Canada Summer Jobs program in 2020, our 5th year in a row!

In July, Sohrab Saegh began working for us as our summer student and you have, no doubt, seen him around the docks and in the safety boat!

Sohrab, or Rob, began rowing in 2019 and is a member of the Canada Games training team, preparing for the 2021 Games in the Niagara region next August.

 

Sohrab graduated from the international baccalaureate program at Colonel Gray high school in 2020 and will be studying philosophy at UPEI in September, with the goal of law school in a few years.  We are hoping he will head to McGill which has a great rowing program!!

Until then, Sohrab will be busy this summer, learning rigging, boat and oar maintenance and other valuable skills, under the guidance of head coach Chantelle Hanley. He will also be training as a Learn to Row coach, and has been an important member of our LTR team in July and August. He also drives the safety boat a lot, for which we are very thankful!

And, of course, other duties as required!  Including inflating giant buoys!!

Rowing PEI would like to acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada in allowing us to hire Sohrab this summer.

 

August Member Update

Hi Rowing PEI Members!

We hope you have been enjoying the start of the 2020 Rowing season! We’ve now been on the water for just over six weeks and we have even more time ahead of us.

With the opening of the Atlantic bubble, we were thrilled to have our performance coach, Chantelle Hanley join us from New Brunswick. Chantelle supported us through our winter training and it’s even better to have her here in person. If you’re following our Instagram or Facebook accounts, you will often see the juniors out with her in the early morning hours.

As of July 20, we were able to start our Learn to Row program. We saw unprecedented interest in rowing this year and have welcomed 24 new rowers to the club, which has made for a very busy schedule on the water. Luckily, the weather has been in our favour almost every day, allowing everyone to work towards their L2.

Thank you to everyone for adapting so well to this year’s new COVID restrictions. The attention to washing and sanitizing the equipment has been fantastic. We are very lucky to currently have no known active cases on the Island, but as Dr. Morrison has said “We are not out of the woods and we cannot afford to let our guard down.” Please continue to wash your hands, maintain six feet distance from others and wear your masks when that’s not possible – and always on the dock.

Please also continue to follow the self-assessment checklist and stay home should you develop any symptoms.

For the month of August, we are making some small changes to the schedule. We will no longer have rowing Mondays or Wednesdays after 6pm. Those days are race nights for the Yacht Club and it has proven too busy near the marina to operate safely. In order to open up a few more time slots, we will divide Tuesday and Thursday evening into two rows: 5:30-7:00pm and 7:00-8:30pm. Please ensure you allow time to return to the docks and wash your equipment before the next row starts.

Keep an eye on Signup Genius! We will add additional rows where possible. Let us know if there is a time you would like to row that is not currently available and we will do our best to accommodate where possible.

As I’m sure many of you already predicted, we have officially cancelled the Red Island Regatta for 2020. Events are currently not sanctioned by Rowing Canada and so we will not be able to go forward with this year’s event. We look forward to welcoming you and rowers from across the Atlantic to the 2021 Red Island Regatta!

If you have suggestions for how we can do anything better, please let us know. And, we’re always looking for extra support, so if you have time to volunteer, please reach out!

Your Rowing PEI board – Sparrow McGowan, Nancy Russell, Brian Higgins, Alex Forbes, Daphne Dumont, Jamie Moran and Alan Hilburg