STEADY STATE PODCAST
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Shane Farmer: The Humble Dark Horse
From teaching the fundamentals to chasing peak performance, Shane Farmer has helped countless rowers get better on the erg through Dark Horse Rowing. But Dark Horse didn’t begin with a grand plan—it started when Shane, then a Concept2 Master Instructor and CrossFit coach, couldn’t find the rowing content he wanted online and decided to make it himself. Today, he’s balancing work and family life, and rowing with San Diego Rowing Club. We stole some of his time for a wide-ranging conversation about finding direction and discovering rowing, embracing the suck, the evolution of indoor rowing coaching, building Dark Horse, and plenty more.
Xeno Müller: Rage and Resilience
It started with blasting tennis balls past the baseline and wanting to make frothy puddles from his single. And then a 12-year old Xeno Müller began to learn to focus his strength, passion, and rage. It led him to an undefeated college career, three Olympic appearances (including two medals), and more than 25 years dedicated to coaching rowers to find better technique and more speed on the erg.
Love your club. Row somewhere else. Tell a new story.
Explore why some of our best rowing experiences happen beyond our boathouses—and why seeking out new boats, waters, people, and challenges doesn’t have to mean leaving your club behind.
Leadership on the Lake: Matt Knifton and Texas Rowing Center
Right in the heart Austin flows Lady Bird Lake, a stretch of the Colorado River that has become a daily gathering place for runners, paddlers, and rowers alike. On its banks sits a true Austin institution: Texas Rowing Center. For owner Matt Knifton, this place isn’t just a business, it’s where his story has unfolded since the 1980s.
Katie Weber: Reclaiming the Athlete Within
After a brain cancer diagnosis and multiple surgeries, the athletic identity Katie Weber had always known felt suddenly out of reach. When she found adaptive rowing at Seize the Oar, Katie discovered a new challenge, rebuilt confidence and independence, and redefined what competition could look like. Through it all, her husband Will has been her gym buddy, race-day cheerleader, and number one fan.
No Water? No Problem. Rower and Trainer Cassi Niemann Thrives in Albuquerque
Cassi Niemann is the lead UCanRow2 Master Rowing Instructor, a competitive power lifter, and the owner of CASstrong, where she blends rowing with her expertise as a strength coach. She not only helps indoor rowers improve their skills and confidence on the machine, but also trains other coaches to effectively integrate rowing into a variety of fitness settings.
Asheville’s Rebel Rowing Set to Make a Comeback
In 2024, Rebel Strength and Rowing made Entrepreneur magazine’s list of the top 150 independently owned and operated small businesses in the United States. In late September, it was inundated by the flood waters of Hurricane Helene. We talk with owner Adam Smith, and member Jason Mogen, about founding a small business, growing meaningful community, and sustaining it all through incredibly challenging times.
Feet, Seats, and Finding Comfort on the Erg
Concept2’s Dick Dreissigacker and Craftsbury’s Will Ruth help us consider heel height, seat pads, horizontal drive, and finding comfort on the erg.
With Equal Parts Data and Devotion, Live2Row Founders Help Rowers Find More Speed
When Stephen Pryor and Justin Knust met as teenage athletes in Florida, they couldn’t have know that 20 years later they’d be coaching people in studio, online, and on the water, as the data-driven founders of Live2Row Studios.
SPECIAL SERIES
Breast Cancer
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Sue Ryan came to rowing through her journey as a breast cancer survivor, and she’s embraced the sport as both a challenge and a source of community. We talk about how the sport helped her move past childhood trauma, how it has shaped her cancer recovery, and the ways she’s found strength on and off the water as a member of Whitemarsh Boat Club, WeCanRow Philadelphia, and the Survivor Rowing Network.
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The Survivor Rowing Network is on a mission to create more opportunities for cancer survivors to row. Since launching in 2023, SRN has grown to 27 survivor rowing programs. In 2024, for the first time ever, the Head Of The Charles Regatta hosted a Survivor Rowing Network event, featuring 11 women’s 8s, all of them breast cancer survivors!
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Like many women who grew up before Title IX, Kathy Frederick spent her young life studying ballet. When, at 42, she learned to row it felt like dancing with partners and she was immediately hooked. Just a few years later in 1993, the loss of a dear friend to a women’s cancer prompted Kathy to host a fundraising event on Portland, Oregon’s Willamette River. From those modest beginnings Row for the Cure was born.
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A decorated middle distance track runner who learned to scull as an adult, Napoleon beat male breast cancer and today strives to get as much out of life as possible. He also survived Hurricanes Irma and Maria which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, causing long-lasting power outages and leaving residents without access to clean water. Motivated by a desire for more training and racing opportunities, Napoleon relocated to Texas, where he splits his time between Austin and Dallas.
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We chat with Patricia Carswell – aka Girl on the River – about all-in-ones (unisuits), breast cancer, blogging, creative coxswain calls, saving the planet, and unfortunate nicknames.
Gender Inclusion
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In 2021, Cillian Mullen was at a pivotal moment — navigating his identity, the college recruitment process, and transgender athlete policies. Five years later, his journey has taken him to the U19 and U23 National Teams, and the University of Washington. We catch up with Cillian to explore what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how he’s continuing to carve out his place in rowing.
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Dr. Mary O’Connor was a member of the influential 1976 Yale women’s rowing program that sparked big changes following the passage of Title IX. Today, she’s a member of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports – an advocacy group “seeking to elevate and empower female athletes by protecting safety, fairness, and opportunity for girls and women.”
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In this second episode in a special series on gender identity policies in rowing, we talk with Ann Strayer, OLY, Varsity Women’s Coach at Oakland United Rowing. Together with fellow OUR coach and Olympian Erin Cafaro they have written a letter in support of USRowing’s gender identity policy, highlighting the importance of welcoming transgender and non-binary scholastic athletes into the boathouse, and allow them to row as the gender they identify with.
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Gender Identity Policies series, part 3. Kevin Harris’s coaching career began in the early 1990s and culminated with 20+ years at the helm of the University of Tulsa women’s rowing program. Harris offers an in-depth and thought-provoking perspective on DEI, the importance of boathouses as welcoming spaces, the prevalence of transgender and non-binary rowers in the United States, and gender inclusion policies.
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Gender Identity Policies series, part 4. The current USRowing gender inclusion policy leaves transgender, non-binary, and other gender nonconforming rowers with very few opportunities to race. Non-binary rower Dr. David Scherzer, and transgender rower/coach Bobbi Kizer, PhD explore their personal journeys with the sport and what policies and petitions mean for the future of rowing.
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Boat clubs have historically catered to binary athletes, and are figuring out how to put out a welcome mat for trans, and gender non-conforming athletes. Our guests, two trans rowers, talk inclusion, courage, and supportive coaches and teammates.
Heart Health
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Willamette Rowing Club couple David Setter and Sarah Copeland are enthusiastic about having learned to row as adults and use the word "fun" to describe their rowing life way more than anyone else we've can think of. But one day in 2018, David had a heart attack. Together, David and Sarah recount that day and why he survived, and delve into recovery and returning to the boat. We also come to terms with erg splits going up as we get older and talk about learning to enjoy rowing for the sake of rowing.
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A member of the first U.S. women’s Olympic team and a longtime masters rower, Sue Hooten has a lifetime of rowing memories. She learned to row in California in the early 1970s, really appreciated the boathouse sock box in Philadelphia, and has raced around the world. In March 2018, her husband, former National Team and Vesper Boat Club coach John Hooten, had a medical emergency on the water while training in his 1x. He was out with his training partner, without a coach, and – like most rowers – was not wearing a PFD.
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Peter Kermond has been the face and voice of Burnham Boat Slings since purchasing the business in 1999. When he's not in the shop, or out rowing, he is probably manning a Burnham booth at a regatta. That’s where we met him – at Head of the Charles – in 2022, just a month after he survived a widow maker heart attack. Peter and his wife Carin Reynolds are both successful national team and masters rowers and high school coaches. They are a testament to teamwork, as they navigated Peter’s health emergency and rehabilitation, and his return to racing.
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Damion Winship had only been coaching for the Ancient Mariners Rowing Club for a short while the morning his coaching life changed. A masters rower new to his program had a heart attack on the water. Hear how Damion worked through his emergency checklist, how his CPR training kicked in, and how the crew worked together to try to save a life.
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