City of Bristol rowing club as it is now has been around for 65 years and has been a staple on the river for a long time. The river itself (a section of a floating harbour) is notorious for its twists and turns, the head racecourse is about 3600 meters long, during which there are three tricky corners and you row under eight bridges. The water winds its way through the centre of the city and past some iconic Bristolian landmarks. They also benefit from a relatively straight 1500m section which, if you go through a narrow loch gate, then leads on to the leafy and calm Avon River. This offers a nice break from the busy city and an opportunity to put the miles in. Bristol is a club with a brilliant, if a little technical, stretch of water and benefits from it significantly.
The clubhouse itself is not the most modern the club has long been trying to build a much better (and warmer!) boathouse, with more space for the ever-growing number of boats and a proper place for the rowing machines. What the club lacks in facilities, it makes up for in resourcefulness; they have never let the lack of a proper erg studio, gym or even a decent changing room stop them from getting good results. The club has numerous junior national medals to its name, with some juniors going on to GB trials and gaining scholarships to prestigious schools. In the most recent Henley Women’s in 2019, the 1st eight got to the final of the club eights category, showing the depth of the club as a whole.
Bristol has long relied on the support and coaching of volunteers. The juniors are mostly coached by a plethora of enthusiastic and wonderful parents who learned how to coach and then ran with it, helping them consistently perform well at national events. This sense of community and encouragement keeps the juniors rowing and attracts new rowers every year. The club has also taken juniors over to Ghent International Regatta multiple times, giving them a brilliant opportunity to experience another country and what rowing against international crews is like.
Most years Bristol hosts its own Autumn and Spring head races, weather permitting, and it always proves to be a great day of racing, often with some interesting corner-taking tactics. Hopefully, we will once again see a river full of boats racing past the Bristol landmarks very soon.
Want to find out more about City of Bristol Rowing Club? Check out their website.
Interested in joining? Contact them here.
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