Crew Took the "Break" out of "Spring Break"

John Minami

While all of my friends were chilling and relaxing back in New York City, I was down in South Carolina going through one of the toughest weeks of my life.  I was attending the annual Binghamton Crew Spring Break Camp.   All of the upper classmen on the squad, who had been on the team for years, promised us, the novice team, that we would die at camp.  They weren’t kidding.

At the start of every day, we would force ourselves out of bed at 6:00 AM sharp to go for a “light run” before breakfast.  Unfortunately our coach’s idea of a light run was a six mile jog down a dusty road.  The captain of our team had a bit too much fun during the run as he chased those of us who were slacking off with a giant stick.  There is a lot of incentive to run faster when seeing a shirtless, muscular man running towards you with a stick.

After the run, we would eat a light breakfast.  I emphasis “light” because right after breakfast we were expected to jump into our boats and row for about one-and-a-half to two hours.  Anyone who decided to stuff themselves at breakfast were punished with nausea and stomach cramps. The rowing was intense and we were barely given any breaks while on the water. After all, we had each paid $450 to attend the camp; we were definitely getting our money’s worth.

Finally around one we would pull back into shore, ragged and sore from our first two practices, and head to lunch.  Everyone had seconds.  The food was only slightly better than Sodexo food but to us, exhausted rowers, it tasted like rainbows and chocolate milk.  After our fulfilling lunch, guess what we did.  If you guessed anything other then “row more” you’re wrong.  After all, we are a crew team.

So after lunch, we went for our second row of the day, this time rowing about two-and-a-half to three hours.  This row was the worst part of camp.  Pulling that oar after the earlier workouts, feels like trying to lift a tree out of the ground.  It was pure hell.  But luckily after that row, all we had was dinner and then the rest of the night was ours.  We had initially expected to stay up all night to talk and hang out but almost everyone started to pass out around eight. 

Crew Camp was definitely a lot of hard work, but the accomplishments feel amazing.   Over a six day period, we covered a little over 80-miles of water.  That’s more than 10-miles a day!  Plus every member on the team was able to grow closer together and improve their techniques.  Binghamton Crew is an amazing team to be a part of and I am so glad I joined it this year. I can’t wait to give up my next Spring Break.