2011: A Year of Modernization

On behalf of the Royal St. John's Regatta Committee welcome to the 193rd season of the Royal St. John's Regatta. Its only May and the shells are active on the pond and the spirit of competition is already alive and well. Even on the first day of spins, nine eager crews weathered the cold for a chance to gain an edge on their competition. If these early signs are any indication, the 2011 Regatta will certainly be a memorable one. And that's not all we have to be excited about this season, but I would first like to draw your attention to some important dates in this year's rowing calendar:

• Discovery Day Regatta June 25, 2011*
• Time Trials July 9, 2011*
• Regatta Day August 3, 2011*

* These event dates are weather dependent.

Communication with Participants

For sometime now, The Committee has been aware that we needed to find more effective ways to communicate with our participants. So we decided social media was the quickest way to reach you. We're still in the early stages of this process but have already established a presence on Facebook and Twitter. Over the last month or so, our "followers" and "likes" have continued to grow and The Committee has really enjoyed the valuable feedback that's already been generating on these pages. So if you haven't come across our profiles yet, look us up on Facebook pages under Royal St. John's Regatta and or send us a tweet @stjohnsregatta; and keep the feedback coming! The Committee is also proud to announce that we will be unveiling a new website within the coming weeks. Along with our Facebook and Twitter pages, the website will focus on providing you more information such as news, training tips and even flag status updates.

New Technical Director

On the training side of things, The Committee has hired a new Technical Director, Brent Payne. Brent brings nine years rowing experience as an athlete, coach and coxswain of both fixed and slide-seat rowing. He will be responsible for helping train new crews and coxswains and will be posting training tips and nutrition information on the website. Experienced crews have no fear, Brent is also available to coach crews looking to gain a new competitive edge to their strategy. If he's not on the pond, you'll find him in the boathouse reading up on the newest training techniques, so make sure you drop by and say hi.

Electronic Timing and Scoring

Continuing with the theme of modernization, The Committee has purchased an Electronic Timing and Scoring (ETS) System that will be installed for all three rowing events this year for testing and integration only. The manual timing system, in place for the last 100 years, will still generate the official results until the system is fully integrated for the 2012 rowing season. Stay tuned for further progress updates!

More information on the ETS can be found here.

Fall Rowing

Rowers can look forward to an extended rowing season again in 2011 thanks to our partner, Chevron Canada Ltd. In early September The Committee and its partner will be offering the Learn to Row Program and the Fall Rowing Program. It was a big hit last year despite the late start and cold weather and we plan to make the programs even bigger and better this year. So if you were on the fence last year, now's your chance to give fall rowing a spin!

As you can tell, there is a lot to look forward to this season. The Committee is putting in a lot of hard work into making 2011 a successful year and we hope you are as excited about these changes as we are. So on behalf of The Committee, I wish you a great rowing season and I hope to see you at the Winners Dock.