Cool new erg goodies!
Just got back from volunteering (no racing this time) at the Head Of The Hooch Regatta in Chattanooga. It’s put on by the Atlanta Rowing Club (my club) and Lookout Rowing Club in Chattanooga, TN. It was an absolutely stunning event. 1900 entries, 9000 rowers, and 190 clubs. And with few exceptions, the weekend went off flawlessly.
I was a little sad that my volunteer position kept me from being able to see the vendors on the first day, because a few weren’t there today, and most of the good stuff had been picked clean. (Most notably, the JL store and the official shirts) However there were two vendors that were still around that were GREAT, and I’m so glad they hadn’t left. The first was Shox-Box, who brought two ergs outfitted with their front and rear “floating” boxes. It was a great feeling to erg on them, it obviously puts less stress on your back, and it provides a fairly realistic rowing sensation, similar to a single. The second was a complete surprise, the Shimano company who typically makes Bike accessores was there showing off their new “Shimano Rowing Dynamics” system. It’s a shoe similar to a bicycle shoe, with a similar cleat under the ball of the foot which is paired to a special foot-stretcher. I have never felt so completely connect to the erg or been able to generate the kind of explosion at the drive that I could today. It felt great, and on top of that the pivot motion that is incorporated into the foot-stretchers means absolutely no pressure points or rubbing. I felt like I could have rowed around the world in these, the difference was amazing.
I am trying to get a little bit of info from both of these vendors right now to get pricing info, but if there is a lot of genuine interest in these products and a lot of people interested in purchasing them, I will look into organizing a group-buy.
These are the basic prices I am looking at:
Shox-Box:
– Complete system: $389.98 Model D, $479.98 Model E
– Rear Shox-Box: $149.99 Model D, $249.99 Model E
– Front Shox-Box: $249.99
Shimano System:
– Foot Stretchers: 51500 Yen (~$663.14US)
*What I think you could actually use:
– 2 Binding Assemblies (R & L): 43300 Yen (~$532.33US)
*Required either way:
– Rowing Shoes: 18600 Yen (~$228.67US)
These sound like great accessories – if you were to pick one, which would it be?
That’s an easy one. I would get the Shimano system in an instant. The improvements it makes to the power transfer and how my feet felt is worth every penny.
jap. movies about the shimano stuff, w/ english subtitles.
http://tv.shimano.co.jp/boat/movie/srd_01_en/
http://tv.shimano.co.jp/boat/movie/srd_02_en/
http://tv.shimano.co.jp/boat/movie/srd_03_en/
The bike shoes are interesting. I actually raced a four outfitted with bike shoes back in 1992. Wow. Long time ago. We had actual bike shoes that clipped onto sort of a bar that went across the foot-stretcher area. At the time, the coach voted against them because it encouraged rowers to roll up onto the ball of the foot and then the drive was mainly driving off the ball of the foot – rather than driving off the whole foot. Seems like the set-up this time around is slightly different, the pictures show a whole shoe plate. However, you still see the toes of the rowers rolling forward past the ball of the foot on the recovery. This may be a loss of some power and seems to be what companies like Bat Rowing are working against? On the other hand seems like it’s not an actual hard-soled bike shoe, and the rower can still put pressure on the whole foot on the drive.
The pivot paired with the hard soles of the shoes essentially means that you get can put more power through the whole drive, and engage your quads better. I found that I was able to put more even pressure on my foot and drive with more power through the entire stroke than I could with traditional stretchers. I haven’t gotten a chance to try any of Bat Rowing’s designs personally, so I don’t know how they feel, or how the power adds up.
The rowing shoes sound great, and make a lot of sense. My only hesitation would be is it too much of an unfair advantage, or is it comparable to other times, PR’s, distances, etc. Also, it would only be used on a primary machine it sounds like, and wouldn’t be transferable or portable. That being said, it sounds needed and logical, similar to the shoes for biking in the power and full range of motion advantage.
2003. http://www.HerrmannHope.com Mendes Hilton nancially qualifi. and then uses e-commerce to find the cheapest price.A better one would be ‘What claims are there against the company andwhat is their relative priority.the responsibilities you’ll have if you buy a bigger house. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century.She ‘didn’t much care for reading.