The World Rowing Regional Coastal Level 1 course for Oceania began in Auckland, New Zealand, on November 2, 2024. The course featured eight participant coaches from four Oceania Rowing Federations: host New Zealand, American Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu.
Coastal Rowing and beach sprint are exciting and dynamic forms of Rowing that take place on open water and sandy beaches. These disciplines require unique skills and techniques due to the challenging conditions, such as waves, tides, and wind. Coastal Rowing is known for its endurance and tactical racing, while beach sprint combines short, intense bursts of Rowing with running on the beach, making it a thrilling spectator sport.
Day One started with theoretical sessions on safety and risk management, including the importance of having a float plan and conducting risk assessments. The day concluded with a swim and flotation test at the Northern Arena Swimming Complex.
Day Two took place on a picturesque beach situated within a national park, Long Bay Beach, where coaches learned about launching and landing, rescue drills, and capsize and re-entry. The afternoon included classroom sessions on coaching styles, planning sessions, warm-up and cool-down techniques, ending with quizzes on the self-guided learning modules that the participants coaches were required to go through ahead of the course.
Day Three began with a classroom session on technique, featuring the World Rowing avatar video. Participants then practiced Rowing techniques on the beach, with some coaches from Tonga adapting from outrigger canoeing. The day ended with participants teaching skills to each other.
Day Four was spent mostly at the beach, focusing on race skills such as entry, exit, 180-degree turns, and emergency stops. Coaches also worked on rigging and prepared for their summative assessment to earn their Level 1 certificate. On day five, participants went through more race skills, the summative assessment, and setting up action plans for post-course implementation. The course concluded with a casual gathering in the park to recognise participants’ efforts.
The Coastal Race Module began on November 7, with 10 participants from New Zealand, Australia, and Tahiti. The participants included Olympian athletes and high-performance rowers, Emma Twigg, Matt Ryan, Brook Robertson, and Mike Brake. Over two days, the CRM covered topics like safe management, launching, landing, rescue, race logistics, and setting up regattas. The course included practical tasks and ended with action planning.
There was an overlap day where Level 1 participants also received the CRM award, working on race logistics and regatta setup. Both groups joined for sessions on beach orientation, course measurement, and launching and landing and had a fun mini regatta to practice setting up and managing a beach sprint regatta.
Safety was a major theme throughout the courses, emphasizing the importance of organising and delivering races and training in a safe environment. The courses were led by Guin Batten, World Rowing Coastal Coaching Education Discipline Lead and World Rowing educators Marc Oria and Laryssa Biesenthal.
This event was made possible with the support of Olympic Solidarity, New Zealand National Olympic Committee, and Rowing New Zealand. It was a good training opportunity for Oceania coaches, who are looking forward for more training opportunities in Oceania in the near future.
Special thanks also go to Swift Racing NZ, who supplied boats and equipment used throughout the course for the beach sessions, and for offering some giveaway prizes given to the participants for their efforts and achievements.
