The Torch

5 days to the start of trials and we are starting to feel the merits of our race prep. Taylor and i will be rowing the lightweight 2x at trials and although it is not what I had planned to do at the beginning of the year, I am really enjoying rowing the 2x. I has been a pleasure to improve with Taylor and see how fast we can make the boat go. We are definitely getting faster every time we go on the water and have had some good competition against my brothers Peter and Tom the last few days. There is no way we will be at our potential by the time trials come around but I am confident that we can show some good speed. We are looking at this regatta as good racing experience for next year and we are just trying to learn and race it up as well as possible. If we end up with our bow out ahead then that's great, but if not, we will have learned something that will help us in the long run. With only a few more days in Craftsbury, we are soaking up the good food and good sleep before a week of racing. We will be challenging my cousin Brian de regt and his partner Jon winter who have been the lightweight 2x for the past year and a half...they have done really well and definitely raised the level of us sculling for lightweights, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't test them! It should be a lot of fun and hopefully we can still have a few beers! But I have a feeling that when we are on the water, neither of us will be holding anything back...