OWRC Coaches & Staff
Are you ready to learn how to row? It’s easy. Give us a call at 415.332.1091.
Are you already rowing but ready to build your skills and venture farther out into the bay? Sign up for our next Rough Water Clinic.
KELLEE ADAMS
Kellee has been rowing for over forty years. She started in an 8-person whaleboat called the Renegade that Anchor Brewing sponsored. That was fun but one day Kellee spotted a tiny fiberglass boat – a newly designed open water MAAS scull -- zipping through the water around Angel Island. At that moment, she knew she was in the wrong boat. Her next most exciting day was when she bought her first MAAS Flyweight. Kellee has rowed and competed so much that she wore out that first boat and is on her second now. Rowing is a technical sport, and Kellee wants to share her decades of information. She’ll teach you the technical aspects of unweighting the boat and getting the boat to move. These days it's less about racing and more about getting other people to race. Book Kellee for advanced level training.
Stefan Benton
Stefan began rowing in 1983 on Lake Merced with Saint Ignatius High School. He then went on to row as lightweight for UC Santa Barbara. Stefan started racing open water in 1992. He has won numerous races, including the Catalina Crossing, Monterey Bay Crossing, Bridge to Bridge and the Open Water Regatta. In 1986, Stefan began coaching and teaching rowing at OWRC and has been doing so ever since. He currently coaches the Rough Water Clinic, a class designed to redefine your definition of rough water and reveal the best technique for successful rough water rowing.
Ellen Braithwaite
Ellen is as fond of teaching sculling as she is of sculling herself. She came to the sport late in life and that has helped her to recognize where people are in their athletic careers (even if they don’t know they have one) and then to build on that to help them develop a new skill or reactivate an old one. Ellen learned to row on a tranquil lake in New England, but she finds the bay more exciting. Her competitive career includes everything from 1000 meter racing in buoyed lanes to rowing 36 miles from Marina Del Ray to Catalina Island. There’s pleasure in the process, whether that be learning, competing, or just being alive in a beautiful place!
Brandon Caesar
Brandon became a rower in 1999 at Berkeley High School. He first rowed at the Open Water Rowing Center in 2001 in one of the high school groups Coach Chris Dadd brought to OWRC. Brandon continued rowing at Orange Coast College and Washington State University. Brandon’s coaching career began in 2006 and has included middle school, high school, and adult rowers, at multiple clubs, throughout the east bay. Brandon returned to Sausalito and the open water in 2020 for the Open Ocean Regatta. You can also find Brandon coaching novices and private instruction at OWRC.
Isabella “BELLA” Schiros
What Bella lacks in stature, she makes up for with a vivacious personality. The diminutive 5’ 2” San Franciscan began rowing in middle school at Lake Merced. She rowed in college at USC where she became a cox. The first time Bella did 2K on an ERG, she reports throwing up. She didn’t row again until she was living in Eureka and joined the Humboldt Bay Rowing Association. If you’ve ever wondered what a cox does, they also row. “I row to train and for fun but it’s not fair to cox if you don’t know what it’s like,” she said. “I can’t call for something without knowing what’s happening. It changes the way I coach and cox.” The best part of Bella is her grit. It’s why she coaches. Her whole life people looked her in the eye and said rowing wasn’t for her. As it turns out records between men and women are shrinking.
Forest seaman
Forest grew up on the water in Sausalito. Before learning to scull in 2018, he rowed a dinghy for his commute to school. Forest is also the OWRC boathouse supervisor, which means he can row almost every day. His favorite place to head is towards Yellow Bluff and the Golden Gate Bridge because of the amazing views of the city and Sausalito. He loves to teach rowing because he can share his love for the water with beginners and help them improve themselves through exercise -- physically and mentally -- and experience rowing on the Bay. Forest loves how rowing tests your limits and makes you focus and be in the moment because one mistake can put you into the water.