It’s been a week since we left the frosty Ballarat mornings for a return to the freezing cold Hobart days, and it is time a for a little Australian Masters Rowing Championship wrap-up!

As a first time Masters (although I have been told I will already be Masters B next year…) I was not sure what to expect. Well, Ballarat is beautiful, the croissants are delicious, the rakalis (native water rat) are pretty cute, and the lake can be very nice to race on, but can also look like some sort of coastal body of water. And we were lucky enough to experience it all! But what made me at ease very quickly is the great camaraderie between the younger and older Bucks Masters.

I was also very impressed by the level of racing (and that’s not only due to my lack of training!), and really pleased to see so many close finishes. Some advice from Denise for racing in the sunny Ballarat days: Always wear sunnies when the sun is so low in the sky so you don’t get blinded and run into distance markers…

While the racing itself was great, it was also a great opportunity to get to know other clubs better and form new connections. For some it was also the opportunity for rowers to reconnect across time and distance, and for connections unknown to be uncovered.

I personally really appreciated that feeling to belong to “Team Tassie”, where everyone will cheer for everyone, no matter which (Tasmanian!) club was racing. The set up made it even better by being so close to the finish line we were able to cheer people on as they went past before and after the line. Oh, and how good was witnessing the joy of people collecting their “bling”.

I was delighted to see that lunch at the pub during AMRC is totally an option, if not recommended, as well as the odd glass of wine (or 2, or 3) after a day of racing. This was a nice change from the “traditional” Nationals I am more used to.

Thank you to everyone involved in getting boats to and from the shed and the mainland, thank you to the Barwon rowing club for lending us their (best!) boat. We are also grateful for the assistance provided by Sam Pullin rowing director Ballarat Grammar, and Raj Muker for hosting a pizza evening at his home.

It was overall a very nice and very successful few days for Bucks, with great racing, awesome results but most of all, lots of fun!

The positivity of being around so many people of all ages who are fit, healthy, engaged and just happy to be there doing it, win or lose was truly amazing.

And let me tell you that, after seeing some crew racing with an average age of 82, I now have some new life goals!

See you all next year

Julie, with the input of Denise and Tom