One year to Rio: Precision and power amid a storm of noise

Cox Andrew Hat doffs his cap to stroke of the New Zealand rowing eight Mike Stanley as the crew sets out for a training row at Lake Casitas. Photo / Paul Estcourt.

ONE YEAR TO RIO
Day 1: Spotlight on the athletes
Day 2: New Zealand's Olympic landscape - How the country is looking in each sport
Day 3: Are we going to have a rowing eight once again?
Day 4: The cost of a medal
Day 5: Is Rio ready?

It's the noise that hits you first.

Sitting in an eight, those first few strokes out of the blocks are a wall of sound, coxes trying to get their messages through above the din, all 48 oars (six crews of eight across the course) hitting the water at the same moment.

"They're exhilarating to race," said Mike Stanley, the 1984 Olympic eight stroke and now the New Zealand Olympic Committee president.

"They're every bit as physically demanding as the other boats, but you get the speed out of them you don't get in other boats.

"And you have to be right on the money. It happens so quickly so there's no room for mistakes.

"You get a sense of incredible momentum and speed, the splash, the noise, a whole lot of stimulus coming in, both as a rower and spectator."

Wyvo Veldman reckons the most vivid part is the feeling of "raw horsepower".

"It's like an eight-cylinder machine, and if you can get it firing on all eight it's magic."
Veldman concurred with Stanley that one mistake can cost a race.

"It happens so quick, and there's so much speed in the boat you can't hold it. You've got to be precise and have eight guys working together."

Rhythm is the key in Veldman's book. "The stroke sets the pace, the seven-seat man picks it up and the other six guys fall in line with that.

"It's getting the blades in the water hitting it clean, and the timing when the blades are coming in and out has to be precise."

A few years back, Dick Tonks, mastermind behind much of New Zealand's rowing success in the past two decades and an Olympic silver medallist himself in 1972, was asked what he rated the best sight in rowing.

He thought a moment or two before replying that nothing topped the sight of a line of boats churning down the course in an eights race.

Current men's eight coach Noel Donaldson knows what Tonks meant. "They're like a V8 vs Formula One."

Donaldson, a former Australian eights cox, pointed out that much of the storied history of rowing revolves around the eight.

"A lot of schools have a first eight as a priority boat and history allows that opportunity for it to be regarded that way."

So how do you make an eight work, vs, say, a pair or a four?

"There's a couple of physical things that can't be overlooked: you've got to have horsepower and speed.

"The history of the event says to win - and this is one of our longer-term goals - you need to be in front about the halfway mark of a race. So you need a good top gear and speed generally comes about through length and power.

"We've got some really good athleticism and youthful exuberance which means you're not afraid to have a go, have no fear and can dial up our power."

The other key is having people who fit the mould for specific seats. Having eight bowmen would be akin to having a pack of eight blindside flankers.

Donaldson doesn't buy the argument that coaching an eight is necessarily the hardest job in the sport.

"It's demanding and time consuming, but not necessarily the most difficult," he said.

"You could have two difficult athletes who don't get on and you have got more work to do because of that. With this group they're such a good bunch of guys I'm not banging heads all the time. It's dependent on the type of athletes you have."