The club targets secondary school age students but Webb said they are happy to take Year 8 students if they are early developers. During the first couple of weeks the focus is on giving each student at least 20 minutes on the water each session.
"We want to give them a taste and by the second week they should know the correct way to carry their boat to the water, how to keep time and how to keep their blades in the water," Webb explained.
After six weeks of Clive-based sessions, the novices are taken to Wairoa for a weekend camp. Webb said it is after the camp that the novices decide whether or not they want to continue rowing.
"Sometimes, with younger rowers, we might tell them to come back the following year when their bodies have developed. Obviously smaller athletes can be coxswains. I tell coxswains they are the Michael Schumachers of the boat because when they say 'foot down' it goes and I also tell them their rowers are the cylinders and pistons."
Webb pointed out they are hoping for more boys this season than they have had recently.
In previous years many of the Hawke's Bay rowers have left the province for university studies after leaving secondary school but Webb said this may not happen as often once the AUT Millennium Hawke's Bay is up and running.
"The future will look brighter for our athletes as that develops," he added.
