Brother

My brother and me

The first rowing World Cup is currently taking place in Munich, Germany.  World Cups are an opportunity for international crew to race each other, to gauge their speeds, and to try to qualify for the World Championships, which will be held in Bled, Slovenia, at the end of August.  Cheer on all the US crews (especially Kristin and her doubles partner in the Women's Lightweight 2x)!!

As for the rest of us mortals, life continues on.  After swimming four mornings in a row (here and here), I was excited to get back into the single Friday morning.  We had 1 eight and 1 men's single also out on the water.  The workout was 2x12 minutes of steady state at 24spm, focusing on technique and steady effort and preparing us for today's workout.

This morning, we had 1 eight, 2 men's singles, and 1 women's single out during practice.  I rowed starboard in the eight.  Today's workout was 3x1000m all-out race pieces.  The short pieces allowed for a long warm-up, almost a full lake loop, with 10s and starts.  During the pieces, the eight felt rough around the edges with the set down to both sides, making it harder to get the blade in at the catch and to apply full pressure every stroke.  Overall, however, the eight showed consistent effort and hit the rates easily.

Despite the drizzling rain today, summer is actually right around the corner.  I started rowing at Lake Merritt almost three summers ago, in the summer of 2008, shortly after graduating, but a bike accident quickly put me out of commission for all of the fall and most of the winter.  Fortunately (and unfortunately), I came back to LMRC in time for San Diego Crew Classic 2009.

One of my happiest memories of rowing was the summer of 2009 because my brother who was still in college came to Lake Merritt to row.  When we were kids, I used to wish that my brother and I were twins because we did almost everything together.  My brother always copied what I did, which once included eating a hot chili pepper from Mom's vegetable garden (bad idea).

Okay, I admit, growing up, sometimes I was a bully;
maybe that's why my brother was never keen on the twins idea

My brother and I are pretty similar.  For example, neither one of us is very creative, and both of us often view the world with black-and-white lenses.  There are some nuances between our personalities, however.

At home, our parents sometimes call me, "粗心大意 (cu xin da yi)," i.e. thoughtless and careless.  Think of me as a big pine tree with heavy branches that wave around wildly in the wind.  I was always more emotional, quick to anger, and probably more of a dreamer.  On the other hand, my brother was always more meticulous, less impulsive, and more down-to-earth.  Think of him as a tall bamboo tree, rigid and with nodes and branches methodically placed.

My brother and me in 2007

Growing up, I was always jealous of my brother because he was smarter, leaner, and more athletic than me.  He skipped two grades in school, and I skipped none.  His physique was muscular, and mine was chubby.  He could vertical jump almost two feet, and I could jump maybe two inches.

When I first learned to row in college with the Cal Lightweight Team, I was excited to show my brother how to row on an erg at our local gym.  After a few strokes, my brother challenged me to a 500m race on the erg.  I thought that I, with my two months of rowing experience, had him beat for sure with his terrible technique.  Shooting his slide, yanking at the handle, putting too much back into it, rushing the slide--he beat me clear out of the water.  I remember us coming home that day and how pissed off I was.  I always hated it when the big pine tree got routed by the skinny bamboo tree.

I eventually stopped sulking and encouraged my brother to join the Cal Lightweight Men's Team as a freshman.  In my mind, he was perfect for lightweight rowing--already lean and easily at weight, which is a 155lb boat average and 160lb individual max for lightweight men.  I was so happy and proud to have my brother row on the same team.  During winter and spring break, we would train together--running, erging, spinning, stairmaster-ing, etc.  Whenever we hung out or went home to see our parents, crew was the only thing we could talk about.  Our parents always wondered what we did with our time (and their money) at school.

My brother and me at WIRAs in 2007

The summer of 2009 was actually not the first time both my brother and I rowed at Lake Merritt.  In the winter of 2007, during winter break, we rowed at LMRC with the Intermediate program (Dennis and Miki remember us from those days).  There were one or two days when we did not have a car and had to take the bus to BART, BART to Oakland, and then, run from the station to the boathouse in order to row.  We must have looked pretty silly--two "kids" wildly running around with their backpacks bouncing around.

The summer of 2009 was, however, the first time my brother and I spent quality time in singles.  I had always hoped that one day, my brother and I would row and potentially race a double together, but my brother loved  rowing the single.  During the summer, we would spend Sunday mornings rowing with the informal scullers group, trying to keep up.  Actually, I was the one trying to keep up; my brother did not have that problem.  I also remember doing time trials in our training singles to qualify for the racing single.  In July, we raced our singles at Southwest Regionals.

My brother in dark tank, looking over before the finish line;
finished third, edging out the competition in Lane 2, at SW Regionals 2009;
courtesy of Roger Allen

I finished third as well, at SW Regionals 2009;
courtesy of Roger Allen

Looking back now and watching those races, I can see a bunch of flaws in our rowing--hands slow out of bow, uneven handle heights, slow catches, and the list goes on.  But without that summer of 2009 and without my brother, I am not sure I would still be rowing.