Crew: Bringing rowing ashore: History of the Crash-Ps

This race, also referred to as “death on a stick” by senior openweight Kate Baker, is what senior lightweight captain Gianthomas Volpe said is “an extremely painful test of physical condition.”

Unlike Crash-Ps, normal spring season races are not rowed individually, and they are on the water. To understand why Princeton athletes would decide to hold this type of race on rowing machines to start their season, it is best to look to history.

Rowing machines, in various forms, have existed since the late 1800s. The first patent was issued in 1871 to W. B. Curtis, president of the New York Athletic Club. Rowers lovingly call these machines “ergs.” Erg, also the name of a unit of energy, comes from the Greek word “ergon” meaning “work.” In the 1960s, an Australian company created a rowing machine that measured work capacity. It coined the term ergometer, which has since been shortened to “erg.”

At the same time that the name erg was applied to rowing machines, erging came into vogue. Rowing coaches began using the machines for training and power measurement. However, it wasn’t until 1980 that erging became a sport in itself.

In 1981, a year after the United States boycotted the Olympic games in Moscow due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Concept2 subsequently came out with their Model A erg. This machine mimicked rowing on the water and gave a group of Olympic rowers the idea for a rowing competition on land. The self-proclaimed Charles River All Star Has-Beens, or C.R.A.S.H.–B Sprints, created an annual five-mile race on the erg. In 1986, when the erg came equipped with a performance monitor, the C.R.A.S.H.–B race changed to 2,500m. As this indoor regatta featuring heats and finals became more and more popular, the erg race was moved to larger and larger venues, heats were eliminated and in 1996 the race was changed to 2,000m.

This final change to a 2,000m race reflected the importance of erg times to rowing coaches who mark training progress with 2,000m and 6,000m times. Though coaches and rowers maintain that being fast on the erg does not necessarily mean you are fast on the water, it is still considered a good general indicator of speed.

There are many spin-offs from C.R.A.S.H.–B Sprints, such as the British Indoor Rowing Championship, which began in 1991. Princeton’s own Crash-Ps began in 2000.

Throughout the winter, all the crew teams do “test pieces,” where the coaches take a 6,000m or 2,000m time as an indicator of strength and fitness. C.R.A.S.H.–B Sprints and this weekend’s Crash-Ps can be considered just another test piece, but it is also the last test piece and the last speed measurement before the spring season.

In 2000, the coaching staffs of all four teams came together to create a boathouse-wide event. They wanted to give this final 2,000m test a different weight. By having all four teams test together, they hoped to capture the camaraderie and competition that the C.R.A.S.H.–B Sprints foster.

It was already an odd year. With the current boathouse under construction, the teams spent the winter erging in the old armory. So, for the first Crash-Ps, they brought the ergs to Jadwin and raced their 2,000m in front of the Cornell basketball team.

This race will mark the end of winter training and the beginning of the spring season. The Princeton crew teams, which are perpetually “in season,” began their winter training on a balmy Dec. 1, with no snow or ice in sight. NCAA rules pushed the Princeton crews off the water and into the “erg room” until Feb. 1. This room quickly becomes a familiar stomping ground for the Tigers each winter. Looking longingly out at a lake that remained unfrozen and clearly “rowable” through the winter, the teams erged and waited until NCAA rules allowed them back in their boats.

Usually, the Tigers return from their Intersession training trip to a frozen lake. Despite the Feb. 1 rule, the teams have had to wait in past years until the ice melted before they hopped back into boats. Winter training has lasted into March some years. However, the unusually warm weather this year and the longer winter break made winter training especially short. As soon as the Tigers stepped off the plane from Florida, they were able to get back into their boats on Lake Carnegie.

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For the first weeks of spring semester, the Tigers have been splitting their practices between the water and the erg.

“We want to make sure our power on the erg transfers to the water, but at the same time the erg provides an unambiguous gauge of your performance,” senior openweight captain Kelly Pierce said.

Crash-Ps is a big opportunity for individuals to show how fast they have gotten over the winter.

“It means that winter is over and it’s time to race. It’s the first real, all out 2K piece of the season for most teams. It’s the real deal — time to shift gears and get ready to race,” freshman heavyweight Jamie Hamp said.

Emi Alexander is a sophomore on the women’s open crew.