Head Of The Lake Regatta Ends The Fall Season For Orcas Island Rowing

Orcas Girls Row Under Montlake Bridge

Orcas Island Rowing Association (OIRA) ended their fall season with the Head Of The Lake (HOTL) regatta in Seattle.

The HOTL regatta is a large and spectacular race  through downtown Seattle. It starts in Lake Union with a view of the Space Needle, winds through Portage Bay, the Montlake Cut and finishes with an exposed and choppy turn through Lake Washington. There are many boats racing through a spectacular and challenging environment with many good opportunities for spectators to watch the action.

The water is cold, there are difficult waves in the exposed sections, rowers navigate turns around a variety of hard and immovable objects and avoid boats of all sizes including small ships. All in all a great spectacle for the rowers and a serious challenge for the rowers.

Because it is such a challenging regatta there are no novice or junior small (1x or 2x) boat racing categories. To give the two junior novices a chance to participate, they were seated in boats with more experienced rowers. Jay Zier rowed in a double with Martin Taylor in the open men’s double category.

Melanie Flint rowed in a quad with varsity girls Jacqlynn Zier, Tamara Klein, Bailey Johnson with Sylvia Yang coxing. Max Blackadar and Garett Pietsch are both experienced varsity rowers but there are no junior races in boats smaller than a quad so they had to race in an open category and performed impressively coming in 5th in the open mens double category, racing against college rowers and other seriously competitive young men. Head coach Tina Brown raced in a single. This is the first season Tina has raced in a single and only the second season she has done any racing with the club. It is fantastic to see her back in competition. Most of the other clubs coaches are long past coaching by example, but not Orcas’ own Tina Brown!

OIRA will be back in action for the spring junior season at the winter break in february. A lot more juniors participate in spring as there are fewer conflicts with other sports. The races in the spring are shorter (1000 to 2000 meters) and faster. All teens (boys and girls) in 7th grade and above are encouraged to come out for crew in the spring.

There are also opportunities for adults to row and learn to row with the club.

Contact info@orcasislandrowing.org or call 376-6935 for more information about adult or junior rowing.

Garett Pietsch and Max Blackadar Racing Through The Cut

Jay Zier and Martin Taylor Rowing Through Portage Bay

Head Coach Tina Brown Cruising In A Single