Tara and Rachel of Steady State Network, shooting the breeze about rowing Artwork

Girl on the River

Patricia Carswell, aka Girl on the River, loves to row and loves to talk, so it makes sense that in her podcast she'll be chatting to guests from all around the rowing and sporting world about anything and everything to do with rowing. Always informal, occasionally silly, sometimes serious, often informative, she delves into questions such as how athletes become champions, how to promote diversity in sport, the secret to staying alive on an ocean, how to improve your erg score and what to do to keep your body and mind in one piece. Her guests include Olympians, health experts, Atlantic rowers, kit companies, indoor rowers, TV presenters - in short, anyone with something to say about rowing and its place in the world. The podcast isn't just about Girl on the River and her guests, though. Community is everything in rowing, so you, the listener, are an important part of the show. There'll be regular Q&As and listener debates, and if you have suggestions for fantastic guests, she's all ears. Patricia can be contacted at girlontheriverpodcast@gmail.com or on social media at @girlontheriver on all channels - come and have a chat .And until then... next stroke, easy oar.

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Girl on the River

Tara and Rachel of Steady State Network, shooting the breeze about rowing

March 10, 2021 • Patricia Carswell • Season 1 • Episode 15

Ep 15. One of the things I miss most about rowing is the post-rowing chat over coffee, where we just shoot the breeze about rowing, interspersed with plenty of gossip, a bit of serious discussion and a lot of silliness. Which is exactly what this episode is all about.

Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan are passionate rowers and rowing coaches. They're also the founders of Steady State Network - a superb rowing podcast as well as a movement, a magazine-in-waiting and a network. "Rowing for the rest of us" is how they describe it, and it's just as brilliantly blazer-free as they promise.

In our chat (it's really a chat not an interview) the conversation lets loose, covering:

Being small as a rower
How Tara would switch sides for the male GB rowers
How Rachel and Tara discovered rowing
How they met and set up SSN (was it a misunderstanding over Rachel's sexuality?)
The joy of coaching masters rowers
The Steady State ethos
Regattas - regatta food and the best events in the US
Diversity, inclusion and the Changemaker Scholarships
Tara's work with adaptive rowers with the Seize the Oar Foundation
Advice for clubs venturing into adaptive rowing
Quick fire questions including some really quite extraordinary, X-certificate coxing calls

I hope you found this a little slice of rowing heaven to tide you over until you can get back on the water. In the meantime, do check out Steady State, and look out for Rachel and Tara on ZoomErgos on a Sunday (and me on a Wednesday morning!)