How I learned to Row at age 52
…and how to make rowing more popular in Japan.
I have always loved the ocean. And I love sports. But I only discovered coastal rowing when I turned 52.
As soon as I started my first few strokes on a coastal boat off Middle Island, in a beginner’s course at the RHKYC, I fell in love with rowing.
Why I never tried fine boat before
I have seen a LOT of fine boat regattas on the river, because of my previous job (I developed a mobile app “PikaPage” that published races and tournaments results). But I never bothered to try rowing. I don’t know why.
Perhaps because it seemed intimidating — not just the thin boat that looked prone to tip over, but more about the competitive and elitist atmosphere in rowing races. Too serious.
Fast forward 6 years: now I live in Fukuoka (West Japan), with excellent access to beaches. I have been rowing regularly on my inflatable rowing board- it was one sport that I could easily do during COVID.
Recently, whenever I go back to Hong Kong, I would always row in the Victoria Harbour with my RHKYC friends. It is such a fantastic experience to be rowing alongside the world-famous Star Ferry, with the spectacular skyline surrounding you, especially at night.
My first fine boat race
Last week the RHKYC team went to race at the famous Toda (Japan) International Masters Regatta. I tagged along with over 20 experienced rowers from Hong Kong. Toda is an excellent rowing venue — built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Although I have clocked a lot of coastal rowing hours, our team captain was very worried that I had zero fine boat experience. He urged me to practice on a fine boat as much as I could before the race. But the fine boat center in Fukuoka City only opens for a short time on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
On race day, I was very nervous, and was really glad that I managed to finished the race without catching any crabs (or lobsters!). Thanks to my great teammates, we won the race on a mixed quad.
I took my 7-year old son along the trip. Not only did he experience the team “spirits” (both during races and in restaurants). I could hear from the video afterwards that he got really excited cheering while I was about to cross the finish line.
I then ask him, “do you want to learn to row?” He said “Yes! I want to win a race like you just did!”
This became the most important take-home of the whole trip. He took notice of rowing sport.
So this year I will take him rowing from my beach. I know that he doesn’t like structured lessons in a group setting — he is still too small. I think it is best to just have some fun rowing with him in a casual way.
Rowing is not an easily accessible sport in Japan
While in Toda, I friend came to watch the rowing race. After some quick Google search, we discovered that it is rather difficult for an adult to learn to row or to experience rowing, to figure out if they would like to do more.
Meghan O’Leary pointed out in his article: Why Elite Rowing will Never be Popular in the U.S. Rowing is also an elite sport in Japan, not very visible nor accessible to the general public.
On the other hand, SUP has experienced a tremendous boom in Japan in the past 10 years. You can see them everywhere on beaches and in rivers. Although you and I both know that rowing is much more fun and makes more sense, but somehow the public is oblivious to the wonder of rowing. They flocked to get bobbling on a SUP board.
I understand that school and university teams are the traditional routes to produce Olympians. But if we can get an old guy like me to fall in love with rowing, you can most certainly get a lot more young people to become passionate early on. Like my 7-year old son.
How to make rowing more popular in Japan
I moved to Fukuoka from Hong Kong right before COVID. In Hong Kong, we have access to rowing anytime, and in many locations. Throughout Japan, there are a lot of very nice beaches with easy access. You can see people kayaking and SUP paddling, but not coastal rowing.
So I bought my own boat from Europe and started rowing off the beach near my office. I started with a hard hull coastal boat, But it was too clumsy to transport on land. I then switched to Row On Air portable rowing system (made in Austria).
I saw a lot of potential for this product to become popular in Japan, so I even become their distributor for Japan!
I have recently started a rowing club off my beach. Hopefully I can help promote coastal rowing in Japan, and sell some boats to cover my overhead.
And we just created the Nokonoshima Challenge — a 10k coastal rowing time trial. Take a look and try it next time you visit Japan!
The Author is the founder of the Fukuoka International Boat Club (FIBC). The mission of the club is the make rowing and sailing more easily accessible. We organize experience days, lessons, rowing and sailing excursions to nearby islands regularly. Locals and visitors are welcome. Click here for more details.
