Since the announcement of the 10th Anniversary Boat Fund, the Foundation has raised over one third of the $35 thousand dollars we will need to outfit the team with an updated 8 man rowing shell.  As the team continues to build and grow in size, carrying 5+ eights of athletes through the Fall and 4+ eights through the early spring races, we are finding that we not only need to have the right number of boats, but that we need to have updated equipment across the varied weight categories to remain competitive.

Working with the coaches and boat vendors, we’ve determined that the team needs to purchase a one to two year-old upper-mid weight shell rated for crews with a boat average of up to 190 lbs. Thanks to boats purchased through the foundation 5 years ago, the team currently has decent coverage in the heavy and the lightweight ranges. But the lack of depth in the mid-weight range had the Novice crew – who placed 4th overall at Crew Classic this year – racing through the spring in a 15 year-old boat.

The technology behind rowing shells have come a LONG way since my day, an older boat can now maintain its rigidity longer and can still be a great fall season training boat.  However, just like a car, rowing shells tend to require significantly more maintenance as they age to keep them running well enough to train in, let alone to be competitive in the spring races.

The foundation needs your help to purchase a top tier racing shell, which will allow the team to cycle one of the older boats out of their spring racing fleet.  Please consider heading over to our Donate page to make your tax deductible donation today.

Donate Online

Regardless of your ability to donate at this time, we also need all of your help to get the message out. So, we’re asking you to please help us by reaching out to any of the people you rowed with to harass encourage them to donate as well.  Anything you can do will help make this goal a reality.

Aztec Alumni, Family and Supporters,

Crew Classic weekend is finally upon us and we’re looking forward to a great weekend of racing and catching up with old friends.  The weekends events kick off with the Varsity 8 in Heat C of the American Specialty Health Cal Cup at 7:36 AM on Saturday morning.  Then the 2nd Varsity 8 will start at 9:20 AM in Heat A of the Sharp Memorial Cup.  Then the Novice 8 will close out the days preliminary schedule at 10:52 AM in Heat B of the Derek Guelker Memorial Cup.  Those of you not attending the race in person can follow along on the USRowing live stream at https://www.youtube.com/user/usrowingorg and catch the results on the official results page at https://herenow.com/results/#/races/20339/heats.

After the acing events of the day conclude, we’ll also be returning to the tradition of hosting the annual meeting of the H. Del Beekley Rowing Foundation at 5:00 PM in the SDSU tent at the race course.  This meeting is open to all alumni of the mens rowing program, and all current members in attendance will have an opportunity to vote on and/or run for a seat on the board for the upcoming year.  If you’re not currently a member, the meeting will be a good time to make a donation of $25 or more to officially become a member.  This year we know we will have a couple of board positions open, so please let us know if you have interest in serving for the coming year.

Sunday’s racing events will be determined by the results of the races on Saturday.  All updated heat information will be posted on the results site at https://herenow.com/results/#/races/20339/heats as the heats complete and the lane assignments are drawn.  Please check back for updated information.

In addition to any racing that happens on Sunday, we will also be hosting the annual BBQ at the team tent starting at about 11:00 AM.  As usual, we will be serving carne and pollo asada burritos with all of the fixings that we’ll be grilling up on site.

We look forward to seeing you at the events of the weekend.

Go Aztecs!