General

@hosrack

I did crew for a semester and had to stop because I blew out my right knee and developed chondromalacia patella

Are you lean and tall? I was tall and thick and that definitely posed to be a problem. I was actually too strong and broke one of the footholds on the boats

Anyway, I wasn't on a team because we only had club rowing but it was super competitive nonetheless.
I had to be waiting for the shuttle bus at the center of campus each morning at 5:20 AM. If I missed it I had to run to the boathouse.
We then stretched and prepped the boats on the river; we were usually fully loaded and ready to go no later than 6am, or the crack of dawn (we started rowing on the river in early February- it was still snowing)
Each morning we rowed for about 90 mins before returning to dock and head back to campus. I would then consume a 2,000 calorie breakfast, go back to my dorm, and sleep until my first class

During non-river practice days, we met at 6 am in the field house for erg training (it's basically a legal torture device) and general cardio. I wouldn't be surprised if our workouts here burned well over 1500 calories each day.. Sometimes I even blacked out

Every afternoon we did secondaries, which mostly consisted of an hour of cardio at 165+ bpm (yay heart rate training) and sometimes weight lifting

I ate like crap and still managed to drop 45 lbs in 3 months.. Mind you I was literally eating around 4,000 calories a day

About 5 months in, I was running a 5k and my right knee buckled.. Things were never the same, which is a pity because I had just pr'd my 2k time at 6:45

Crew is not easy, it is not for the faint of heart. The techniques are so precise you will spend months trying to learn them. Your resolve will constantly be tested. You will vomit, you will feel pain, you will feel so much sweat you'll wonder if it's even worth showering after a workout

So would I do it again? Absolutely yes. Was it a cult? Absolutely yes. But it helped me grow so much as a person and athlete that I wouldn't hesitate to repeat the experience, and since then I met my best friend throughout college give it a try if you're up for the challenge, but don't go in expecting something easy haha