Steady State Podcast

After six months of training, Steady State Network’s Allies with Oars’ first coastal – and first international – race is a wrap! Two Allies With Oars mixed 4x+ crews spent the better part of Aug. 25, 2024 circumnavigating an 88k course around Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, for Race Around the Rock, hosted by Salt Spring Island Rowing Club. We got a little bit of everything: flat water, rolling waves, eddies, boat wakes, se...

As part of our semi-regular club spotlight series, we cross the northern border into British Columbia, Canada to learn more about Salt Spring Island Rowing Club. Steady State Network's own Allies with Oars crews were just on the island for the Club's 88k coastal rowing regatta – Race Around the Rock. 

Meet Salt Spring Island Rowing Club head coach Stacey Mitchell, RAR race director Zoe Clark, and new(ish) master's sculler Michael S...

Inspired by his parents from an early age to work hard, Julien Bahain became a 3-time Olympian and an Olympic medalist. He’s been involved with rowing for 25 years, taking on multiple disciplines including flat water, coastal, and ocean rowing.

Over the years, his involvement in the sport has grown too, from organizing World Rowing Championships and helping establish OARCA, to founding West Coast Rowing Adventures with his wife Kat...

In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was clear that the 2020 rowing season was in jeopardy, we started brainstorming. We were just two masters rowers and coaches who wanted to celebrate the expansive array of rowers, coaches, and coxswains and savor real-life experience from launch to cox seat at every level. 

We launched Steady State Network in September 2020 with one goal: reframe the popular, yet limited narrati...

In 1984, Kris Thorsness brought home gold in the U.S. women’s 8+ from the Olympic Games Los Angeles. Home was Alaska, where she was welcomed with a parade and the distinction of being the first Alaskan to win an Olympic medal.

Today she says she’s “just a masters rower,” but 40 years after that gold medal Olympic performance, she’s also a USRowing Referee and is an Arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the U.S. and ...

Born and raised on Vashon Island, Washington, Jacob Plihal wasn’t super excited to start rowing (ugh, spandex!), but in 2012 a knee injury prompted him to give up his basketball dreams. With prodding from his physical therapist, and then motivated by friend, classmate and Jr. National Team rower Mia Croonquist, he climbed the ladder to Northeastern University team captain, then the U23 National team, and most recently was named to ...

 We challenge our listeners to "Ask us Anything." When a very specific question came in about back pain, we didn't feel like we 100% had the authority to answer it. So show co-host Rachel Freedman called up her chiropractor – and former DC Strokes Rowing Club member – Dr. Joe Henderson to get his insights.

Together we delve into causes of rowers' back pain, injury prevention, managing expectations, stretching, and considering other...

There are many impersonators, but Concept2 RowErgs are the original – and for many the gold standard – indoor rowing machine. It all started in the early 1970s with brothers Dick and Pete Dreissigacker, a bike wheel, and engineering experiments in a barn in Vermont.

Dick and Pete know their machines, and rowing, inside and out so we called up Dick to talk about how foot stretcher set up can help both new and seasoned rowers.

And be...

Twenty years after meeting as high school athletes, long time friends Stephen Pryor and Justin Knust are coaching in studio, online, and on the water, as the data-driven founders of Live2Row Studios.

While hauling regatta trailers and drinking beers in bars, Stephen and Justin realized that the coaching and training system they’d been developing for youth rowers could be valuable for the larger rowing community. In 2015, they opene...

This is the fifth and final episode in a series on heart attacks and emergency preparedness. In this series you’ll hear first hand accounts from rowers who survived heart attacks, teammates and coaches who witnessed these events, and even from widows who reflect on warning signs and “what ifs.”

On this episode: Bill Byrd has been rowing for nearly six decades and was a founding member of Willamette Rowing Club in Portland Oregon. O...

This is the fourth episode in a series on heart attacks and emergency preparedness. In this multi-part series you’ll hear first hand accounts from rowers who survived heart attacks, teammates and coaches who witnessed these events, and even from widows who reflect on warning signs and “what ifs.”

On this episode: Damion Winship had only been coaching for the Ancient Mariners Rowing Club for a short while the morning his coaching li...

Bonnie Garmus was a competitive masters rower for years before an offhand comment during a business meeting prompted her to begin writing her debut novel, "Lessons in Chemistry," which has been adapted into an Apple TV+ series.

Everyone wants to talk with Bonnie about the book’s main character, Elizabeth Zott, but we turned the table to ask Bonnie about the role rowing plays in her life – and her book – which has been on The New Yo...

This is the third episode in a series on heart attacks and emergency preparedness. In this multi-part series you’ll hear first hand accounts from rowers who survived heart attacks, teammates and coaches who witnessed these events, and even from widows who reflect on warning signs and “what ifs.”

On this episode: Peter Kermond has been the face and voice of Burnham Boat Slings since purchasing the business in 1999. When he's not in ...

As part of our club spotlight series and in the lead-up to San Diego Crew Classic, we head to California to get to know ZLAC, the oldest women’s rowing club in the world.

Established in 1892, ZLAC's unique structure allows for both competitive and social memberships. You don't have to row. New members are added to generational Crews to bolster cross-program and boathouse interaction and provide personal connections to members in a...

This is the second episode in a series on heart attacks and emergency preparedness. In this multi-part series you’ll hear first hand accounts from rowers who survived heart attacks, teammates and coaches who witnessed these events, and even from widows who reflect on warning signs and “what ifs.”

On this episode: A member of the first U.S. women’s Olympic team and a longtime masters rower, Sue Hooten has a lifetime of rowing memori...

This is the first episode in a series on heart attacks and emergency preparedness. In this multi-part series you’ll hear first hand accounts from rowers who survived heart attacks, teammates and coaches who witnessed these events, and even from widows who reflect on warning signs and “what ifs.”

In this episode: Willamette Rowing Club couple David Setter and Sarah Copeland are enthusiastic about having learned to row as adults and ...

Elizabeth Gilmore has had in insanely meteoric trajectory from indoor rowing newbie to indoor rowing champion and world record holder, to Head of the Charles course record breaker.

It all started with getting on the erg to rehab a running injury. Then came the Concept2 Logbook and challenges. Then virtual racing (and winning), before stepping onto the gym floor at Erg Sprints for her first in-person event where she took home two go...

Teens are super aware of stranger danger from a really young age, but most of them have genuinely never thought about misconduct from known adults. Using SafeSport training as a springboard, Coach Libby Boghossian leads in-depth discussions with her Brookline High School rowers about team policies and the concepts of consent, power imbalance, and coercion. She’s helping to create a culture for her young athletes where everyone is e...

After providing some basic instruction, coaches often leave coxswains to figure things out on their own.

Three-time medal-winning U.S. Olympic coxswain Mary Whipple recognized this gap in the coaching playbook and founded The 9th Seat, offering camps, resources, and community for coxswains.

Hear what Mary has to say about lucky breaks and logistics, and why bei...