Egyptian Nermine Khenefar found rowing in her 40s when, winded on her ascent of Mt. Kilimanjaro, friend and explorer Omar Samra suggested she take up the sport to increase her aerobic capacity. After just a few years, Nermine is an avid masters rower and indoor rowing competitor who is seeking to row everywhere she travels and welcomes visitors to row with her on the Nile.

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.

In 1984, Kris Thorsness brought home gold in the women’s 8+ from the Olympic Games L.A. Forty years later, she prefers sculling, is a USRowing Referee, and an Arbitrator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Before heading to Paris for the Olympics, she joined us to talk about refereeing, which is often glossed over by rowers but key to ensuring regattas are safe and effectively run.

We challenge our listeners to "Ask us Anything." When a very specific question came in about back pain, we didn't feel like we 100% had the authority to answer it. So show co-host Rachel Freedman called up her chiropractor, Dr. Joe Henderson (aka Chiro Joe) to get his insights.

Bill Byrd has been rowing for nearly six decades and was a founding member of Willamette Rowing Club in Portland Oregon. One morning in 2018, he suffered a heart attack while training in his single. This is a story about living well, being prepared, the power of having all hands on deck, and survival.

Bonnie Garmus was a competitive masters rower for years before an offhand comment during a business meeting prompted her to begin writing her first novel, "Lessons in Chemistry," which has been adapted into a hit Apple TV+ series. Everyone wants to talk with Bonnie about the book’s main character, Elizabeth Zott, so we turned the table to ask Bonnie about the role rowing plays in her life – and her best selling novel.

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.

Established in 1892, ZLAC's unique structure allows for both competitive and social memberships. You don't have to row. New members are added to generational Crews to bolster cross-program and boathouse interaction and provide personal connections to members in a similar age range for support. As far as we know, ZLAC is unique in this offering. Be prepared to take notes and consider what more your club could do to help build and sustain community.

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.