Most collegiate sports teams consist of student-athletes who have played their respective sport since they were in grade school. But that is not always the case or crew.

Of 43 oarsmen in the men’s crew program, 35 have had no rowing experience prior to their start at Ithaca College.

“People who don’t have experience absorb it really quickly,” senior seventh seat Julian Halfmann said. “You tell them about how to row before they actually do it. It’s like riding a bike — you just get better as you go.”

While living in Germany, Halfmann participated in sculling, which is a type of rowing involving two oars, while each member of the Bombers’ crew rows just one oar.

Junior fourth seat David Creak, a foreign exchange student from Australia, also had some experience before coming to Ithaca.

Creak has been rowing since he was in sixth grade. After rowing for his high school, he went on to row for the Tasmanian team.

“I’m not the strongest rower,” Creak said. “But my experience helps.”

Though Creak came in with rowing experience, he did have to adapt to the differences between American college life and Australian universities.

“School is different here,” Creak said. “Everyone in Australia lives at home, they don’t go away to school. Dorm life is a lot different.”

Despite very few people having experience, the crew still competes at a high level. The varsity 8 is 6–1 this season. Head Coach Dan Robinson said he puts a lot of energy into training novice oarsmen so by the time they are seniors they have developed into strong rowers. The novices generally need to start training on their own by working out on rowing machines and lifting weights, he said, before practices even officially start.

Before even getting a boat on actual water, Robinson has the novices row tanks, which are boats in cement surrounded by water on all sides. This allows them to get rowing experience without the fear of flipping the boat over.

“It’s so much more than just running and kicking a ball around,” freshman Aaron Atwater said. “It combines strength, cardio, endurance, teamwork and skill all into one. It’s one of only a few sports to do so.”

Atwater said the three-mile run to the boathouse on the first day of practice proved to him just how tough the transition to rowing was going to be. Atwater was a football player and swimmer in high school but said they are not similar to rowing.

“We had to do a lot more off-the-water training as novices,” Atwater said. “We had to train on technical and skill work while [the varsity 8] rowed by 8’s and worked mainly on power.”

Even major contributors to the varsity 8 came in without experience. Senior captain second seat Eric Hojnowski did not have rowing experience before coming to Ithaca.

“I saw a poster for it when I first got here and decided to try it out because I wanted to get involved,” Hojnowski said. “I’ve been rowing for four years ever since.”