Get your toes in the sand and surf with coastal rowing! Leave notions of perfect strokes behind and embrace what the ocean brings you. Team USA coastal and beach sprints head coach Marc Oria, and rower Pearl Outlaw – stroke of the first ever pararowing women’s quad – help us bring these disciplines into the conversation about the future of rowing.

Two Allies With Oars mixed 4x+ crews spent the better part of Aug. 25, 2024 circumnavigating an 88k course around Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, for Race Around the Rock. Post-race, and with beverages in-hand, the team sat down together to relive some highlights (and low lights) and share what made the experience so meaningful.

We cross the northern border into British Columbia, Canada to learn more about Salt Spring Island Rowing Club. Steady State Network's own Allies with Oars crews were just on the island for the Club's 88k coastal rowing regatta – Race Around the Rock. Guests Stacey Mitchell, Zoe Clark, and Michael Strumberger embody the enthusiasm, passion, and motivation necessary to build and sustain this small town rowing club.

In 2021, USRowing boated its first-ever Beach Sprints National team and in 2022 Next Level Rowing appeared on the scene, training high performance rowers who have gone on to win medals at domestic and international coastal regattas. To talk about this discipline which has been raced for generations in Europe, we connect with coastal rowing rising stars Christopher Bak and Christine Cavallo, and their coach Ben Booth, co-founder of Next Level Rowing.

John Huppi, Kats Siemens, and Will Kuckro from New Orleans Rowing Club tell us about The Big Easy – a city with a rowing history that stretches back nearly 200 years – and their vision for the future of coastal rowing in the Gulf South.

Coastal rowing is coming to the Olympics in 2028. To get ready, USRowing is developing a framework to adopt and embrace coastal rowing. Plus coastal just looks plain fun and offers up exciting opportunities for new and experienced rowers. We sat down with four coastal rowers and coaches to talk wetsuits in winter, beach sprints, buoy turns, boat design, green waves, and running in the sand.