Roeipraet 2-2019

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P R A E T

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When and how did you end up at Beatrix? I moved to Eindhoven from Chicago at the be- ginning of October 2018, because I wanted a new job a bit closer to home but was dreading the thought of going back to the London com- mute. Now I live right by Beatrix and my com- mute is seven minutes, met de fiets natuurlijk. I love the familiarity of rowing having done it for such a long time, and it’s a great way to meet people. I arranged to come to Beatrix the morning after I arrived in Eindhoven, and Frank [Vandewal, red.] introduced me to several teams straight away. Can you compare British and Dutch rowing? One thing that really surprised me here is the way that Beatrix is separated into small teams… in my club at home we had about 30 girls all training in the same squad, with one or two coaches for all of us. The crews change for each session, until about six weeks before the biggest races when we will normally have seat racing to decide who goes into what boat. In general the coach would set the slowest crews off first so that he has a chance to spend a few minutes with eve- ryone per session, or otherwise we would have fixed meet up points on the river. The training programme would be set a month in advance with a lot of focus on Another difference is the Dutch love of coxed quads [4x+, red.]…apart from when we came over for the Heineken Roeivierkamp at univer- sity I had never been in a coxed quad before and I’ve never seen one anywhere else! What are your (best and worst) experiences at Beatrix and what are your rowing ambitions? I row with the Skuumkopkes and the Roze Pekskes ( photo page 16 ) at Beatrix, and I am planning to compete in the Elfstedenroeimarathon with Zonder Dollen. All the teams I have rowed with have been really friendly and I had a great welcome at Beatrix, apart from one lady who told me off for not speaking Dutch in the chan- ging rooms after I’d been here for three weeks! I wouldn’t say I have had bad experiences at Beatrix, although I am still trying to get used to the strange way of carrying boats on the shoulder and the obsession with opening and closing gates when the boats aren’t in the water! And of course fitness…in a normal week we would have ten training sessions. I fell asleep in a lot of work meetings!

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