When rowers make the successful transition to other sports, I don’t know about you, but it gives me a great sense of validation. Rowers are awesome. I know it, you know it and every now and then, it’s nice to remind the world.
When Jason Osborne, as part of his Tokyo preparation, casually jumped on his exercise bike and won the Zwift Cycling eWorld Championship it was a great surprise to the cycling community. But for us rowers it was like … of course, what did you expect! Especially as lightweight rowing represents the highest refinement of strength, endurance and skill in our sport. Post Tokyo, Jason has a contract with the leading Belgian cycling team Deceuninck–Quick-Step and is making his way through the rookie ranks of the international peloton. The cycling community recognised the transferable skills from the boat to the exercise bike and from Zwift to the road.
(not) Like Jason, I’ve recently entered the world of Zwift on my exercise bike and the transition of my rowing fitness has held me in good stead. My rowing physique has put me in the lead bunch of my category and achieved a recent podium finish. What did I expect? I’m a rower! The reason for my uptake of Zwift was environmental, my local river flooded and the Olympic International regatta centre was destroyed. My doubles sculls partner and I had our target regatta cancelled and our season prematurely ended. Like many found during lockdown, Zwift cycling proved to be a great alternative to (not) rowing, complete with real world training experience and added gamification with real human competition. The Zwift platform responds to many individual data points and takes into account the intricacies of height and weight, power and cadence. My choice of bike and wheels also play a critical role in how my avatar interacts with the virtual environment. As I’m a heavier than average male, I’m fast on the virtual flats but have to work extra hard up the hills, which augmented reality takes into account. As I earn my virtual points and progress in my performance I can transition to faster equipment. And when I jump on my road bike in the real world, I know that my Zwift experience is completely transferable. The hardware of the bike and the software of the virtual platform are directly transferable to the real world. What a shame this isn’t the case for indoor rowing.
There continues to be a twofold problem with indoor rowing as both the hardware and virtual platforms offer no transferable skills or real world experience to the boat. The End of the Island Podcast recently reviewed a new generation of indoor rowing machines, the old ergs don’t float debate but with a new technological edge. The JRN presenters were under no illusions that there are any transferable rowing skills from these machines to the boat. Even new ergs don’t float. This includes the overhyped and overpriced Hydrow, Aviron, WaterRower and TechnoGym which are all variations of the common direct pull flywheel, handle and chain C2 ergometer setup. The VR platforms on offer from these companies only respond to two data points, power and strokes per minute. Sure, you can row along in high resolution but there is no real individualisation of data or interaction with what’s on the display.
The current lightweight World Champion Martino Goretti is a technological enthusiast. He was the first to use “smart” glasses in his preparation for the Rio Olympics and has become an early adopter of the augmented reality rowing VR platform EXR. Exrgame.com is currently the closest we have to a Zwift platform but again, only responds to two data points, power and strokes per minute. The program does not take into account any other factors. Martino connected his C2 machine and has embraced the possibilities of the software. However, he had expected that his avatar would be able to upgrade equipment, boat and oars within the game, just like in Zwift – but sadly not so. Sure, he could change the colour of your kit but that’s it. Martino wrote to me to ask if I could get in touch with EXR and get him some Randall foils for his virtual oars, perhaps there was a commercial opportunity for me here? Martino became World Champion using Randall foils and he wanted the extra speed for his virtual avatar. Their response was “that is not our business model.” Surely, any VR rowing platform must allow for multiple data points, take into account the height and weight of the rower and consider tides, currents, winds and waves of virtual courses. Imagine if rowers could progress from a trainer scull through to the fastest Empacher or Flippi. They could select from a range of blades and shafts, each with different performance capacities. I’d love to go for a virtual row with a friend in a double scull, or join a club team in a Four or an Eight, keeping in time and pulling together. If we fall behind a competitor’s crew, we would hit their virtual wash and need to work extra hard to make up for lost ground. I would love to race with my friends down the tideway, Henley or enter the “eHead of the Charles.”
Perhaps it’s our blinkered dependence on the C2 indoor rowing machine that is the real limiting factor here. The data points that the C2 machine produces are limited by its reductionist replication of the rowing stroke and can only ever measure Power and Strokes Per Minute. If we are to achieve any real transferable skills we need a more authentic rowing machine that simulates the exact boat setup. Dynamic movement, independent feathering oars with a sweeping/sculling option, real oar arching movement, with a balance/imbalance. In a recent article, I made the direct link between injuries in junior rowers and direct pull rowing machines. Regrettably, the setup of these new machines offer no solutions and will continue to create serious health complications in our sport [insert link]. I was subsequently contacted by PR3 to discuss how the dynamic movement of their machine combats rib stress injury. The PR3 perfectly replicates the natural movement of the body in relation to the boat which could be seen as useful for getting the feel for the rowing motion. Still, like the C2, the PR3 can only offer two data points.
Thankfully there exists a small collection of manufacturers who create boat simulators, and without debate, the leading model is the Biorower. Each oar of the Biorower has independent sensors and offers a multitude of data points for augmented reality platforms. Biorower has recently announced a partnership with Kinomaps to integrate augmented reality. It will be interesting to see how far they can take this, especially as Biorower’s can now be joined into any Olympic boat class. Watch this space.
My recent (not) rowing experience made it clear just how important it is to have an authentic indoor rowing machine coupled with a multi-data point augmented virtual rowing platform. We know just how awesome rowers are, don’t you think it’s about time that our indoor rowing equipment was too.
Row On.
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