MORNINGS ON LAKE MANGONIA
Palm Beach Rowing Association offers memberships.
The rowers start at sun-up, or even earlier. In ones and twos, they hoist the surprisingly light shells off the boathouse racks and over their shoulders and trundle to the edge of Lake Mangonia. With a quick but careful flip, the needle-shaped vessels are right-side-up in shin-deep water, ready for a morning slide across the rippled surface.
Members of the Palm Beach Rowing Association include several former members of the U.S. and U.K. national teams, many snowbirds and City Commissioner Paula Ryan, among others, but monthly ($120) and full ($540) memberships are open to anyone who knows the basics of rowing, and the club’s shells are there for the using.
Because Mangonia is part of West Palm’s reservoir system, no motorboats are allowed, so they can’t have a traditional rowing school, with someone on a tender hollering through a megaphone. Neophytes are directed to the Florida Rowing Center in Wellington for lessons and encouraged to come back and join the Palm Beach group when they’ve acquired the skills.
It’s the kind of sport you can take part in from middle school on up. A bunch of Palm Beach Rowing Association members are over 60 and President Raymond Tollman, who first rowed at age 13 in his native Ealing, England, is a hale 75.
A few dozen feet from the boathouse at 2957 Australian Ave., a sign alerts visitors to the presence of alligators, but Tollman says he hasn’t seen any in the 20 years he’s been a member. And no rowers are believed missing.
For information about the facility and how to join, visit palmbeachrowing.com or call 561-848-1767.