Your favorite rowing center is the subject of a feature article in Outside Magazine this month. Written by Michael Roberts, the piece profiles several familiar OWRC regulars.
THIS IS A STORY OF ADVENTURE that ends with a gold medal and glory. Along the way there is the hubris of youth, friendly porpoises, and a moment of true terror.
It begins on a commuter ferry one morning last summer in the middle of San Francisco Bay, where I spotted two rowers gliding past Alcatraz in what looked like collegiate racing shells. My first reaction: Holy crap! The bay is a wicked place for boating, with swirling currents, menacing fog banks, and winds that regularly blow 20 to 30 knots. The water temperature hovers around 55 degrees. There are great white sharks. It’s not a place for small open-cockpit craft—or so I wrongly assumed. A minute of smartphone Googling led me to the site of the Open Water Rowing Center (OWRC) in Sausalito, just north of the city. Apparently, folks there have been charging around in modified shells for 25 years.
So here’s yet another reason to read this great magazine, and pass it on to friends (and even strangers!). Let them know that, as Michael says, “Rowing (is) an easier pathway into the local fraternity of badasses.”