Fancy sticking
Everyone should head for Strathclyde Park to have a go says Gillian
“Rowing isn’t for everybody,” Gillian Connal freely admits – but the Strathclyde Park Rowing Club president says most people get hooked by the sport very quickly.
The early, cold winter mornings are off-set by rowing in the summer and the sheer excitement of the sport, or just finding peace and solace out on a boat in the middle of the eight-lane international-class loch.
Strathclyde Park Rowing Club, at around 17 years old, is a relatively young club in Scottish terms.
They don’t boast magnificent facilities just yet but maintain around 60 members – and Gillian is more than happy for anybody to give it a try.
“A lot of people stay on,” says Gillian. “With rowing it’s either for you or it’s not, a lot of people just want to give it a go, and then a lot of people get hooked. Once you get hooked, you stay.
“It’s not for everybody. There are long, cold mornings, it’s not often sunny. There are days that you go out and it’s snowing, or it’s freezing, or it’s windy, and you come in and you’re soaked head-to-toe, but it’s good.
“Once you’re hooked, you’re hooked – people don’t leave.
“We have about 20 to 30 juniors and about 20 to 30 seniors, so we could grow a wee bit, but we would have to build on our fleet in order to grow much more than that.”
Getting involved with the club is quite straight- forward, as Gillian explains.
“For juniors we have a junior coach who co-ordinates everything.
“She tries to get them down, generally on the first Saturday of a month, they just have to contact her in advance. She runs a wee mini-course and starts integrating them with the other juniors.
“For seniors we do a three- day course that runs on every Sunday. You can come down and join that way and then gradually you integrate