The Kowie

We're back on the Kowie.

kowie bridge, even better at night

I haven't posted in a while.. and if you're hoping this is a big comeback post, sorry to disappoint- its just an update- and the update is as already stated we're back on the Kowie.

jax, lolz and tay

We packed boats before tri varsity and headed up to Port Alfred hoping to race NMMU dibaz on the Saturday for tri var. Unfortunately this never took place due to a mix up at sports admin. The official reason was that the river was not booked and as a result the nmmu sports admin could not recognize it as a tri varsity race and would not give their crews funding to come to port alfred. A bit of a disappointment as these mock trials are a good indicator of boatrace preparations and have a little bit of rivalry and history attached to it- not only in the eastern cape but also up in joeys where pre boatrace races between wits/uj and tuks happen and also in cape town where stellies take on uct.

our 4 crews though still went ahead with a mock.

training up to this point was all being done at settlers, but now for the weeks leading up to boatrace they will be done on the kowie.

sessions have been good although the wind has picked up this last weekend. this hasn't really been the case over previous years where the trend has usually been calm for the weeks leading up to boatrace and then a bit of rough weather the week of boatrace so it will be interesting to see how this pans out-will keep you updated.

mens A8 at shipwreck corner

the water at night has been a pretty epic colour and you can't better a rowing session at this time when its calm. this brings me onto scott walraven.

scott walraven

scott walraven managed to capture the true beauty of rowing on the kowie when he described once of its best parts- and that was on one of those night sessions, where visibility is a bit poor at the end of the session, coming into the last straight and under the bridges. he described the sound of the unified finish coming under the bridges. the boat only goes under the bridge for a couple of seconds but you are guaranteed at least 2, maybe three strokes in that time and if the boat is set and the timing right the sound of the finish has a distinct echo as it bounces off the underside of the bridges. the feeling is pretty awesome. i told him wait until boatrace where you have a crowd of rhodes supporters adding to the noise.

scotts next description was that of the mill where his exact words were "is that it?". i don't want to indulge on to many rurc secrets so i think for the sake of preserving the wonder that is the mill i will not say anymore.

scott walraven



just a couple of quotable qoutes about the Mighty Kowie to end off with:

andrew theron, rurc 2006-2009, "just you wait guys, when you're on that river, coming down the last stretch and the crowds making that noise.. there's no feeling like it"

carl de beer, rurc 2009-2011, "its always blood, sweat and tears on the Kowie"

sam vosper, rurc pres 2012, "i was singing all praises for the Kowie 10 days ago, but now i despise it with all this salt on the boat"