The Red River of the North (http://www.riverkeepers.org/ or http://www.fmriver.org/) which flows through downtown Fargo, ND is very picturesque and serene. This section of the Red River is not too wide, has a few bends, but it is still good for single and double sculls or pairs. We launch our sculls off a floating dock located under the 1st Avenue Bridge in Moorhead (Hjemkomst Center parking lot area) close to where the "SS Ruby" is moored and from the boat ramp at the Farmer’s Market area, near the downtown YMCA. Most of our novices got their first taste of rowing here on the Red River.

The stretch of the Red River in Grand Forks, ND from the “Point Bridge (1st St.) to the “Kennedy Bridge” (Gateway Drive) is relatively straight and is almost 2000 meters long. We launched our sculls from the boat landing near Cabelas sporting goods store on the Minnesota side and we feel that the river is wide enough for even fours and quadruple sculls. The rower wearing the black “uni suite” with the large white “Y” on his chest is Andrew Towne, a graduate of Grand Forks Central High School in ND. Andrew was part of the Yale University crew that won the Lightweight Men’s Eight event at the 2005 IRA Championships.

We had our first outing in a coxed eight on Lake Ashtabula in Valley City, ND. This might be the first time (to be verified) that an eight oared shell was rowed in the state of North Dakota.

Silver Lake in Hawley, MN is about 35-45 minutes from Fargo, ND. It is not very long, about 800 meters but it is still pretty good for practicing stroke technique, timing drills, etc.

After rowing on the Red River in Fargo and Grand Forks, on Lake Ashtabula in Valley City we wanted to explore other suitable rowing locations in North Dakota. So we strapped our double scull on top of our van and went out to test-row on the Jamestown Reservoir in Jamestown, on the Missouri River in Bismarck and on Edward Arthur Patterson Lake in Dickinson. As we expected, all the aforementioned locations turned out to be simply ideal for rowing! We also went down to take a look at the Pipestem Reservoir in Jamestown, ND. Although we did not have time that day to row there the Pipestem Reservoir looked like a very nice place to row on. Just for the record, the Sheyenne River flowing through Valley City, ND also looks very suitable for recreational sculling (singles and doubles).

The Red Lake River flowing through Crookston, MN is wider and slower than the Red River. It is a lot of fun rowing there.

Our First Rowing outing on Lake Cormorant in Lake Park MN. Rowers - Brian Fier, Rick Crume, Malshantha Mawalle & Mahinda Ferdinando.

We use a Concept2 Model-D indoor rowing machine (Ergometer or "Erg") to teach the basic rowing stroke to novices, for warm up, for winter training and for general conditioning. What started out as a winter/indoor rowing training activity, indoor rowing now has developed into a sport in itself. In February 2006 two rowers, Ken Lucier and Lauren Wibben representing North Dakota participated in the “Minnesota Power Pull” (Minnesota State Indoor Rowing Championships) in Rochester Minnesota. While Laren performed well in the Collegiate Women’s category Ken won the Master’s event. With time adjusted for age Ken was the FASTET rower at the tourmenmet. For results see: http://www.rrcmn.com/powerpull/2006PowerPullResults.pdf . Proper rowing technique on the indoor rowing machine can be seen here: http://www.concept2.com/05/rower/rower_alex_anim.html .

Carlo DiCicco of Fargo very kindly let us use his garage, tools and material to do repairs on our rowing equipment. Andrew Haataja’s dad has generously allowed us to store our shells over the winter in his tool-shed. Thank you Rick Crume for letting us use your vehicle to pull the shell trailer.

We picked up our first set of sweep hatchet oars in Sioux Falls, SD off the Lake Union Crew (Seattle, WA) shell trailer headed to Boston for the Head of the Charles Regatta. The oars were sold to us by the University of Puget Sound Crew. We did a 2,800+ mile round trip to Charlotte, NC, and back to pick up the Shell Trailer and our first eight. The trailer and eight were sold to us by Dr. Byron Walthall, Head Coach of Charlotte Youth Rowing at Stratford Richardson YMCA in Charlotte, NC (http://eteamz.active.com/CharlotteYouthRowing/index.cfm). The rec double and single sculls were sold to us by Peter Stramese of Alexandria Community Rowing in Alexandria, VA. Christine Deatrick, Crew Coach of the Stetson University in DeLand, FL picked the two sculls from Alexandria and transported them to Dad-Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. The Schoenbrod was given to us for free by Rachel Hawes of the St. Mary's University in MD and Allison McNickle of the Johns Hopkins University Crew transported it to Dad-Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. The University of Minnesota Men’s Crew (arranged by Coach Ed Podnieks) transported the three shells from Philadelphia to Minneapolis where we finally picked them up from. Our most recent acquisitions have been three sectional Schoenbrod Collegiate Eight hulls + 16 macon sweep oars donated to us by Matt Hopkins of Niskayuna Rowing (http://niskyrowing.org/) in Niskayuna, NY and 16 hatchet sweep oars donated to us by Previn Chandraratna, Head Coach and Program Director of Row New York (http://www.rownewyork.org/) in Long Island City. Members of the NDSU Rowing Club - Brian Fier, Spencer Cheever, Ashley Browen and Andrew Haataja did a 3,000+ mile round trip to bring back the above rowing equipment from NY State to ND.