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Dyson Hepting of Raleigh, N.C., carries his sculling shell to Camps Mill Pond in Lancaster County for a training session
David Dodrill, who works for IBM
Charlotte Hollings, |
LANCASTER--Will Gamble, a trim 58-year-old from Naples, Fla., is filled with trepidation as he heads into the TV room in the Inn at Levelfields, an open and airy Northern Neck mansion built in the 1850s.
He's about to get a critique of his skills in the new hobby/sport/exercise of competitive rowing that has lured him halfway up the East Coast for instruction.
The bed-and-breakfast side of the business enterprise has already pampered Gamble and his wife, Delores, providing them and the other six guests with a sumptuous breakfast of pancakes and assorted fruits and berries.
But long before that, they were put to work by the other side of the business-- an Olympic-caliber sculling school called Calm Waters Rowing.
While the sun was coming up, Gamble and the others rolled out of bed and boarded a small bus for the short ride to the school's nearby Camps Mill Pond.
There, each rower selected one of the school's sleek and shiny rowing shells. They're narrow, lightweight boats between 20 and 30 feet long, with seats that slide as they're pulled through the water by long, custom-rigged oars.
Once they'd carried the 30- to 40-pound boats to a small pier and launched them, the rowers set out across the 90-acre pond. Their mission was to remember and incorporate what they had been taught the day before: Keep elbows relaxed, hands down, head up, wrists flexed and so forth.
Watching all this from a small johnboat were Charlotte Hollings and John Dunn, a married couple with 53 years of competitive rowing.
He started at Cornell University, eventually rowing on the U.S. national team and winning World Championship medals. He coached at Cornell for 25 years, taking the women's team to a national championship in 1989.
She rowed at the University of Virginia and on the U.S. team, earning medals in two World Championships. She coached at Stanford, Boston University and Cornell, where she and John met and eventually married.
After coaching stints at two other rowing schools in the '90s, they decided to start a school of their own.
Initial explorations on Lake Jackson in Prince William County proved unproductive, so they turned their attention to the Lancaster County site, opening the rowing school there in 2001.
During visits that last for three, four or seven days, for prices that range from $615 to $960 with various accommodations and seasons, the students learn by doing.
Three times each day, at 7 and 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m., rowers attempt to transform the coaching they receive into rowing improvement.
At the 7 a.m. session, Dunn uses a video camera to record the style of each rower.
The videos are critiqued in daily after-breakfast sessions that guests say are extremely helpful, though sometimes hard to watch.
"You've actually improved a great deal," he tells Gamble, who's gotten advice from friends but never from a real coach.
For nearly 20 minutes, Dunn breaks down every facet of Gamble's style, from the length of his reach to the height of his hands to the smooth nature of his stroke.
Interspersed with compliments are refinements Dunn and Hollings suggest to help him gain speed, power and control.
Critiques follow for each guest, with the least experienced rowers getting extensive advice.
Before the session ends, students and coaches who were strangers two days before are joking like long-lost friends.
"That's what really motivated us to open Calm Waters Rowing," Hollings said. "Most of the people we'd meet coaching and teaching were great people who were fun to be around."
He added that by providing the housing for the school on-site, the coaches and students get to know each other even better, often spending evenings and other downtime together.
Though Dunn and Hollings enjoy the rowing part of the business more than their role as B&B hosts--their only help comes from a full-time chef--they say guests who come simply for the inn have been their salvation.
"In our five-year business plan for the rowing school, we didn't include a national business downturn, 9/11, a sniper or a wet spring like this year's," Dunn said. "But the fact that the inn was already operating and drawing guests on its own is probably what helped us make it."
Both are glad to report that rowing-school bookings are growing and that guests are coming from all across the country. Repeat business is another encouraging trend.
"You can fumble around for a year or two and learn all kinds of bad habits, or you can come here for a few days and learn to do it right," Gamble said. "It's really the only way to get better if you're interested in competitive rowing."
For more information about Calm Waters Rowing or the Inn at Levelfields, call 800/238-5578 or visit their Web site, calmwatersrowing.com.
To reach ROB HEDELT: 540/374-5415 rhedelt@freelancestar.com
