2020: In 2, WAY ENOUGH
In a year dominated by a global pandemic that altered the way we do absolutely everything, it’s hard to even count January and February as part of the same calendar year. Its like 2020 is all about what happened from March 1 to December 31.
After a few weeks of venturing out less and less, everything moving online, and no opportunities for rowing or racing on the horizon, Tara and I saw a small sliver lining when we met, became friends, who turned into business partners, and together launched Steady State Network.
We determined that SSN will reframe the popular, yet limited narrative about rowing culture. We want to celebrate the expansive array of rowers, coaches, and coxswains whose real-life experiences deserve to be told, from launch to cox seat at every level.
With an early notion of supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion in our sport, the Black Lives Matter protests took the conversation up several notches within the rowing community and helped bring more focus and purpose to our mission.
Since launching in September, we’ve brought voices of brown and black rowers to the forefront, along with LGBTQIA athletes, para athletes, and allies. We’re excited to continue this work in 2021, and hope you’ll be there right beside us. There’s always room for you in our lineups.
FEBRUARY
COVID-19 enters our universal consciousness when we start hearing reports of illness and death in Wuhan, China.
MARCH
March 1: Rachel drives from D.C. to Boston for CRASH-B’s to set up her RowSource vendor tables for the first (and ultimately, only) event of the 2020 season. Her father-in-law – a world renowned virologist – is wary about her making the trip, but tells her to “just be careful.”
We stop using public transportation, start wearing masks, and worry about stocking up on toilet paper and yeast.
The Spring rowing season looks to be in jeopardy.
Rachel continues training a sculler 1-on-1 in a private gym until March 12, when the gym closes.
Tara finalizes plans for a Seize The Oar/Freedom Rows Open House on Vashon Island (cancelled later that month). She continues teaching her Pop-A-Wheelie spin class, and working out on land with Vashon Island Rowing Club. All are in jeopardy.
March 26: Rachel is a guest on the Ready Row USA podcast.
APRIL
The rowing club Rachel belongs to announces the start of Sprint season practices will be postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19. This quashes her plans to get back in sweep boats after a 5-year hiatus. Desperate for competition and alternative training, she participates in Foolsfest Virtual Sprints on April 4.
Everything now cancelled, Tara participates in new online weekly Zoom workouts with Team Seize The Oar.
Tara and Rachel meet online in a FB group dedicated to rowing. Tara’s in Vashon, WA and Rachel’s clear across the country in Washington, D.C. We continued chatting online and via email through May.
JUNE
Tara and Rachel meet on Zoom for the first time and talk rowing for hours.
Tara’s Vashon club gets back on the water in COVID-bubble style sessions and sweeper Tara embarks in a 1x for the first time in years. She manages to not only stay upright but actually kinds of enjoy it!
Rachel participates in DC Strokes Rowing Club’s virtual Stonewall Regatta, an 8-day max meters event. She grinds out 125k on a borrowed erg she’s placed on her back patio in the sun.
JULY & AUGUST
Lots and lots of brainstorming… Plans begin to take shape for a new venture we decide to call Steady State Network.
We start spreading the word to family, friends, teammates, and rowing networks that Steady State Network will reframe the popular, yet limited narrative about rowing culture; and celebrate the expansive array of rowers, coaches, and coxswains to savor real-life experience from launch to cox seat at every level.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 1: Official launch of steadystatenetwork.com
Sept. 11: Our first virtual event - Your Inclusive Coaching Toolkit: Innovation & Inclusion in Rowing – is announced to the public.
Sept. 22: Steady State Podcast Episode 1 released
Sept. 22: First e-newsletter is sent to subscribers. We continue to send this communication weekly on Wednesday mornings.
Sept. 29: RowingNews magazine speaks with us about our mission and vision, and features SSN on their website in early October.
OCTOBER
Oct. 3: We host Your Inclusive Coaching Toolkit: Innovation & Inclusion in Rowing, which draws attendees from across the country. The online event brings together nine panelists to lead discussions on adaptive training and inclusion; strategies for recruiting, welcoming, and retaining athletes from a wider spectrum of communities; helping organizations to be more mindful, innovative, and diverse; and exploring boathouse communication principles.
Steady State Podcast really gets rolling.
Oct. 23: We launch the Changemaker Scholarship initiative to help develop leaders in the rowing community, with the goal of paying the way for three people to attend USRowing’s 2020 Annual Convention. Several companies and organizations step forward to support our effort, including iCrew, Science of Rowing, Tacoma Youth Rowing, Seize the Oar, and Concept2 – each sponsor a scholarship.
NOVEMBER
Nov. 20: We host our first FB LIVE Coffee Chat. We miss morning practices. And we really miss post-practice coffee with teammates. We invite folks to grab their favorite mug, and join us to chat about the Before Times, the year of the single, finding motivation on the erg, finding connection off the water, and anything else that’s on their minds. The Coffee Chat is added to our schedule as a regular Friday morning event.
We go North of the border to check in with Halifax Rowing Club in Nova Scotia for Ep. 7 of Steady State Podcast.
DECEMBER
Dec. 1: Our 2020 Changemaker Scholarship recipients – 8 total – are announced. The are rowers, coaches, physical therapists, fitness instructors, founders of rowing organizations, para athletes, younger, older, Mexican American, African American, Irish, parents, and students. They all attend the USRowing Annual Convention where diversity, equity, and inclusion take center stage, along side standard convention topics like training plans, biomechanics, and boat maintenance.
Dec. 6: Rachel gets back to coaching … via Zoom … for the first time since March.
For Steady State Podcast we have great conversations with:
Ep. 9: Olympian Aquil Abdullah and Olympic hopeful John Olbrys (1/13/21).
Dec. 11: We host our first virtual Happy Hour, wrapping up the first four days of the USRowing Annual Convention.
Dec. 12: Tara hosts the LGBTQIA+ Inclusion and Intersection session at the USRowing Annual Convention.
Dec. 15: We’re on board as a media partner for Seize the Oar’s final Global Para Rowing Meetup of the year.
Dec. 16: Ready Row USA invites Tara to participate in it’s anniversary episode.
Rachel’s still waiting on the erg she ordered from Concept 2 in October. UPS says it’ll be delivered Jan. 4…
Steady State Podcast episodes in January and February 2021 will feature:
Ep. 10: The rower behind the Instagram account TRA.United (Transgender Rowing Association)
Ep. 11: The Boatanist Susannah Cass
Ep. 12: Author Daniela Nacházelová (Voice of Rowing), with Michelle Carpenter (CEO of Rowing Ireland), and Judy Geer (head of marketing at Concept2).