Snow Rowing

One snowy morning we decided to try something new! Rowing on fresh snow!

Diana Lesieur and myself, Harold Aune, loaded our paddle boards on top of my old FJ cruiser 4-wheeler and headed off looking for a suitable snow rowing spot!

We drove over to a local golf course that is located on a hill just a few miles away.

Looking at the grounds layout we selected a part of the course that was a nice gentle slope for our first run. We unloaded then pulled Diana’s Adventure Row 13’4”, Oar Board®️ and oars, out onto the fairway. We set it up on a level spot just at the top of the hill. The ground was covered with about a foot of feathery snow.

The Oak trees and Evergreens were also all draped in snow and the scene was really quite beautiful to behold.

Diana climbed onto the board, sat down and fastened up her footstop straps while I got my video cameras set up to record this historic event! I placed a GoPro on a mount on the back of her board and positioned myself down the hill a ways to get a shot as she, hopefully, rowed past. Diana’s board was teetering just at the top of the hill. She jerked herself forward and pulled on her oars to start moving.

As she slid forward onto the slope she got in some good strokes as the board took off at a nice fast rowing speed. Away she went, quite quickly actually, snow rowing down the hill.

The whole adventure worked out really well and we have gone out a few more times since then and tried snow rowing in a few different locations!

A few points to note if you want to try snow rowing out for yourself:

• Remove or do not install the fin. The slightly protruding fin box mount on an inflatable provides enough directional stability.
• You need a short line tied to the bow handle to pull the board along like a sleigh.
• Use an inflatable paddle board, as a hard board could easily get damaged.
• Start with a gently sloping hill with enough space at the bottom to come to a stop. We have run into a snow piles a couple of times resulting in abrupt jarring stops. No gear damage so far though.
• Dry snow is definitely slipperier than wet snow. With wet snow a steeper hill is needed.
• Bring along a hot beverage to keep warm! Whatever your favourite might be!

What a great way to get out in crisp cold fresh air and have some fun! We rarely get snow here in Victoria but now we kind of look forward to it.

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