To really understand the scale of Shiplake success in the last decade, you have to take a stroll back through the pages of time to a sunny afternoon in Nottingham. The year is 2015 and Dave Currie is just under two years into his tenure as director of rowing at Shiplake College, a group who have frequented the middle of the chasing pack of schoolboy eights throughout the recent past. 2014 saw the team win a silver medal in the Child Beale (the now decommissioned cup for boy’s school first eights) and the following year, amidst a great deal of noise from perennial rivals KCS, Latymer and Bedford, the bees finally summitted at Holme Pierrepont. They ran out winners of the first eights category, sparking their ascension into championship racing and giving Dave the clear mandate he needed to make Shiplake into a ‘rowing school’.
Fast forward eight years and Shiplake are now considered one of the fastest school programs in the world. They’re consistently towards the top of the domestic pile and have won four of the last five headships at the Schools’ Head of the River (a level of consistency rarely observed in junior rowing). Now, Dave and his charges are targeting the ultimate prize – a win at the Henley Royal Regatta. With the help of the RP3 – a tool Dave first brought into the Shiplake program in 2017 – the boys in red, yellow, and black are focused on bringing back the trophy that they collectively consider to be their home prize.
“I think there’s an expectation around us winning the biggest prizes in junior rowing, but I reflect on where we are as a group and I think we’re in a really good place,” explained Dave. “There’s always a lot of noise around us winning Schools’ Head and not converting it into the summer but that is a good season, if you stopped right there. We don’t frontload our year or prioritise that race but the technical coaching we do early on is probably what helps us in those situations.”
On the boy’s side, Hugh Mackworth-Praed is often the unsung hero. He is the first eight coach and his deep knowledge of the Tideway provides his charges with a unique racing edge that translates into free speed on the reverse championship course. Hugh – who is a vastly experienced athlete in his own right – has cultivated the sharp end of the program to accommodate Dave’s overarching vision.
Technicality is what Dave’s crews are well-renowned for. To win at the Schools’ Head requires a robust knowledge of the Tideway plus the ability to row well over a longer stretch, often in challenging conditions. Ably supported by Hugh and girl’s head coach Dan Safdari – who have both been integral to developing the style and poise that Shiplake crews are renowned for – Shiplake’s other priority is building a winning culture. “We had to really develop a group of culture-carriers and I think our 2015 crew (who won the Child Beale) were a great example of kids who wanted to push the boundary and have gone on to achieve amazing things in the sport,” said Dave. “Now the athletes coming through are used to Shiplake winning things which obviously creates a positive mindset but also a sense of expectation that we can just show up and beat everyone. I’m always trying to ensure our kids remain grounded and ready for any challenge.”
To build a technical base in a country that is regularly blighted by flooding and cancellations, you need to have the closest possible simulation to on-water rowing available to you in the boathouse and the gym. This is where Dave brings the RP3 into play. “I brought the RP3 into our program around six years ago and it’s had a profound impact,” said Dave. “The translation from being in a boat to sat on the machine is the closest I’ve seen in rowing via the RP3, and you can really gain a wider picture by looking at the types of athletes who fare slightly better on an RP3 compared to other machines.”
It’s often said that the RP3 is an ergo built for rowers and the machine compels the athlete to row as if they are in the boat, as opposed to pulling hard on a handle and hoping for linear progression. “We’ll use them across the senior and J16 squads and all of our steady state rowing is done on the RP3,” explained Dave. “We also find that there is less load on the back and that the RP3 is better in terms of injury prevention, which is critical for a squad with our ambitions.”
Dave continued: “The support we get from RP3 is amazing too. Whenever the machines are due a service or something needs fixing, Paul is with us as soon as he can be. I also love their commitment to innovation – they respond to feedback and are always looking for ways to improve the product. I guess that mentality is one I can get behind, as I’m trying to instil the same outlook in my crews and across the squad.”
Despite the impressive achievements of a program that has clearly proved robust enough to consistently churn out top-level crews, the mountain peak is clear to Dave. “We want to win Henley,” he stated. “That is what drives the school, what drives our governing board and what drives me personally. The support we get racing on the Henley course is incredible, as a local school to the event, and the prospect of winning the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup on our turf is outstanding. We did it with the girls in 2021 and now we want to do it with the boys too.”
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