Down to the waterline
On a freezing morning in deepest east London, Aubin braves the cold, water and aggressive bird life to meet Britain’s most committed rowers. Lea Rowing is one of the UK’s leading watersports clubs. Founded in 1980 in what was then an industrial, largely abandoned corner of east London, it’s thrived and become a local institution. On a freezing winter afternoon, Aubin met the rowers, volunteers, and powerhouse cox Emily Thompson.
So what’s your actual job as cox?
I’m in the boat, I have a microphone, I steer. I motivate the boys, keep them safe, tell them when they need to go faster and work harder. I’m only 5’1” and they’re absolutely massive and I’m getting to boss them around. But I do get on really well with them. They have to listen to me anyway – they don’t have a choice.
It’s freezing cold, early starts, incredibly hard work… what’s the attraction?
The winning is amazing. When you’ve worked all year for one race and it all pays off, it’s the best feeling in the world. But then you’ve got to pick yourself up, and you again and you’re constantly working towards that goal. And we’re competitive with each other on the water, but then off the water we all get on.
For such a small country, we produce a lot of great rowers. Why is that?
We’ve got amazing rivers to start with. And British Rowing really supports clubs like us. But also what we do here is very, very different from those big traditional clubs that go through the private schools, the universities. We try and bring something a bit different into the sport, bring people in who may think, ‘Oh, rowing’s not for me.’ Bring them here – rowing is for you. Rowing is for everybody.
What’s the side of this place that most people don’t see?
The sunrise is amazing, especially when it’s foggy. You get these really pink skies. You get to see the world waking up. There’s loads of wildlife and birds that live on the Lea, and they wake up as you go past. Only issue is John The Swan, who we love, but is an absolute pain for everybody – he likes to attack the boats as they go past.
