That Heat Where Eddie Smoked Me

photo by Cassandra Mohr

About a year and a half ago we did a fun segment on gondolas for an Australian TV show.
Along with showing how romantic it all was, I mentioned that we also race these boats.  The host HAD to have us race for the segment, so Eddie and I took a couple gondolas out and ran a down-and-back sprint.  
I didn't expect to win, because Eddie is younger, bigger, 
and had been training a lot, but as luck would have it, I won that race.

This year at Nationals, Eddie and I ended up in the same heat 
for the Solo Sprint event.
It was again - a down-and-back course.
I thought "well, I beat him before..."
Turned out that such logic did NOT apply.

Eddie beat us all off the line, made it to the buoy turn first, and from there...flew away from us, all the way to the finish line.

It was an impressive performance, but it got me wondering:
was this payback for that race in front of the TV cameras?
Or had he just let me win that time?

I guess we will never know.

One Starts while the Other Finishes

photo by Cassandra Mohr

With nine separate race events this year at the U.S. Gondola Nationals, 
we had to take advantage of every minute of daylight, 
and in fact a few races went into the evening.

Here you see Michael Angelo Ruffino positioning his gondola "Lucia" in preparation for the start in the Distance Solo race.  
Meanwhile in the background a pupparin finishing in the background.

But there's more to the picture than that.
In the foreground is a gondolier who has competed in this event 
(the Distance Solo) for years.
He's won gold, silver, bronze in this event.

In 2017 Mike won the gold medal, 
but the next year he had to settle for bronze. 
This year he was on a mission. 
This is a sort of "calm before the storm" shot of him, 
because this year signore Ruffino took first place once again, 
and by a good margin.

Finishing behind Ruffino was myself and John Kerschbaum on the pupparin.
We hadn't planned on rowing that event together this year.
We just decided that day to race "for old time's sake", 
since we've rowed as a tandem team many times in previous competitions.
We didn't win a medal in that time-trial race, 
but we had a wonderful time rowing that race together.

Alza Remi with Josh

photo by Cassandra Mohr

At the end of heat #2 in the Sprint Tandem event at the U.S. Gondola Nationals, Josh Sopp and I raised our oars in a traditional salute, 
as Al Macina and his son Dante crossed the line.
It was just one of a hundred great memories of the weekend.

Here's to...

photo by Cassandra Mohr

Here's to dirty white pants,
Sunburned skin,

Torn up hands,

And sore EVERYTHING.

At Nationals...

We compete in whatever conditions we get.

Rain in Providence, we race!

Gale force winds, we race!

Crumbling forcola, we race!

Broken oar, flip it over and keep racing.

Here’s to a crowd of people all cheering in striped shirts.

Here’s to that pain that you’ll remember after the race, 

but you’re ignoring right now.

And here’s to pushing it as hard as you can till you hear that marvelous word from the judges: "TIME!"

USGN 2019 - The Numbers

photos by Cassandra Mohr

The 2019 U.S. Gondola Nationals was just a "chapter" in the book of American voga-alla-Veneta, but what a great chapter it was.  Many of us can't stop talking about it.  I know this because I'm one of those people, and I've been on the phone with several others - talking about it for the last few days. It was only great because of the combined efforts of so many who contributed their talents, efforts, and enthusiasm to make it so.
Again, I extend my heartfelt thanks to all who were involved.

Part of each "chapter" involves numbers.
Each race was different.  Some were time trials while others saw competitors racing alongside each other.  But the common factor in all races was that the winners were those with the shortest time through the course.

In this post I'm publishing the complete listing of competitors and how they finished in each individual event.
Yes, it's long, but a lot of people have asked me to do this.

There's a big disclaimer here though - not every race was a perfect race.
Some course times were affected by a broken oar, a forcola that came loose, or interference by another boat. 
In one case two gondolas got tangled up only fifty yards from the finish line.
Winds and currents also varied throughout the day.
But in the words of Alex "Alessandro" Haynes of Providence "You play with the cards you're dealt", and everyone was a good sport about it.

Of course we still yelled at each other while we were racing against each other (and sometimes bumping into each other), but at the end of the day we are all brothers and sisters in stripes.
It was an honor racing with you all, and I so look forward to doing it again.

Here are the complete results:

American Solo - Sunday
	Rank	Name	Time
	1	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	9:52.04
	2	Parker Harrison	10:22.84
	3	Robert Moe	10:30.41
	4	Tim	10:39.64
	5	Jakob Easton	10:49.87
	6	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	10:50.15
	7	Eddie Rivera	11:20.29
	8	Alex	11:21.04
	9	Michael Angelo Ruffino	11:49.57
	10	Josh Sopp	11:53.41
	11	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	12:26.71
	12	Mark Schooling	12:53.42
	13	Gary Serbeniuk	13:53.58
	14	Greg Mohr	15:04.65
	15	Mike Bronstein	20:37.60
Sprint Solo - Saturday
	Rank	Name	Time
	1	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	6:56
	2	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	7:42
	3	Jakob Easton	7:50
	4	Hunter Mitchell	8:03
	5	Mark Schooling	8:04.07
	6	Tim Tyler	8:04.28
	7	Adam "Ivano" Alves	8:05
	8	Eddie Rivera	8:08
	9	Stephen "Stefano" Anastasia	8:09
	10	Michael Angelo Ruffino	8:14
	11	John Kerschbaum	8:29
	12	Greg Mohr	8:36
	13	Gary Serbeniuk	9:08
	14	Josh Sopp	9:11
	15	Keith "Legno" Thurmber	9:14
	16	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	9:17
	17	Al Macina	9:19
	18	Robert Moe	9:40
	19	Tyson Davis	12:02
	20	Roselyn "Giuliana" Young	12:17
Sprint Tandem - Sunday
	Rank	Name 1	Name 2	Time
	1	Michael Angelo Ruffino	Parker Harrison	6:38.40
	2	Hunter Mitchell	Jakob Easton	6:55.80
	3	Tyson Davis	Tim	7:00.06
	4	Adam "Ivano" Alves	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	7:02.39
	5	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	Roselyn "Giuliana" Young	7:18.18
	6	Simon Atkins	Jonah Bonner	7:20.72
	7	Josh Sopp	Mark Schooling	7:23.12
	8	Eddie Rivera	John Kerschbaum	7:50.00
	9	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	7:54.46
	10	Greg Mohr	Kalev Pallares	8:29.50
	11	Al Macina	Mike Bixler	9:15.72
Obstacle Solo - Saturday
	Rank	Name	Time
	1	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	3:30
	2	Kalev Pallares	3:31
	3	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	3:32
	4	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	3:48
	5	Adam "Ivano" Alves	3:49
	6	Greg Mohr	3:50
	7	Jakob Easton	3:58
	8	Robert Moe	4:05
	9	Tim Tyler	4:07
	10	Tyson Davis	4:08
	11	Stephen "Stefano" Anastasia	4:11
	12	Mark Schooling	4:20
	13	Hunter Mitchell	4:25
	14	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	4:39
	15	Simon Atkins	4:43
	16	John Kerschbaum	5:01
	17	Roselyn "Giuliana" Young	5:22
Obstacle Tandem
	Rank	Name 1	Name 2	Time
	1	Jakob Easton	Hunter Mitchell	3:18
	2	Michael Angelo Ruffino	Parker Harrison	3:35
	3	Simon Atkins	Jonah Bonner	3:39
	4	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	Adam "Ivano" Alves	3:42
	5	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	3:44
	6	Greg Mohr	Kalev Pallares	4:12
	7	Roselyn "Giuliana" Young	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	4:21
	8	Gary Serbeniuk	Robert Moe	4:45
	9	John Kerschbaum	Stephen "Stefano" Anastasia	4:45
Distance Solo - Sunday
	Rank	Name	Time
	1	Michael Angelo Ruffino	39:36.02
	2	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	41:05.63
	3	Adam "Ivano" Alves	41:43.36
	4	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	43:02.93
	5	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	45:55.59
	6	Stephen "Stefano" Anastasia	46:20.60
	7	Tyson Davis	48:21.78
	8	Mike Bronstein	54:12.86
Pupparin Distance Tandem - Sunday
	Rank	Name 1	Name 2	Time
	1	Adam "Ivano" Alves	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	30:31
	2	Michael Angelo Ruffino	Parker Harrison	32:04
	3	Tyson Davis	Tim Tyler	33:48
	4	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	33:56
	5	Stephen "Stefano" Anastasia	Jakob Easton	35:24
	6	Greg Mohr	John Kerschbaum	37:17
	7	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	Roselyn "Giuliana" Young	39:05
	8	Robert Moe	Gary Serbeniuk	46:41
Distance Tandem - Saturday
	Rank	Name 1	Name 2	Time
	1	Michael Angelo Ruffino	Parker Harrison	31:58
	2	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	Adam "Ivano" Alves	32:13
	3	Tim Tyler	Tyson Davis	33:12
	4	Greg Mohr	Kalev Pallares	34:22
	5	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	34:46
	6	Mike Bixler	Al Macina	51:23
4-Man Distance - Saturday
	Rank	Name 1	Name 2	Name 3	Name 4	Time
	1	Simon Atkins	Jonah Bonner	Greg Mohr	Kalev Pallares	26:56
	2	Josh Sopp	Michael Angelo Ruffino	Parker Harrison	Eddie Rivera	27:46
	3	Matthew "Marcello" Haynes	Thomas "Nicola" Morin	Harrison "Mariano" Richards	Adam "Ivano" Alves	29:14
	4	Mike Bixler	Al Macina	Tyson Davis	Tim Tyler	32:05
	5	Roselyn "Giuliana" Young	Keith "Legno" Thurmber	John Kerschbaum	Tim "Bepi" Reinard	40:29

Scary Faces

photos by Josh Sopp

 

With Halloween upon us, and Nationals still close in our rear view mirror, 
I thought this small collection of photos might be appropriate.

We all know that the tandem duo of Ivano and Mariano are good looking guys, but sometimes when we're in the middle of a fight, we make faces.  
And these two are no exception.

While snaking back and forth in the obstacle course, 
Marian blessed the world with this amazing expression:

Later, in the Distance Tandem, Ivano gave his best "Angry Samurai" face while blasting to a Second Place finish.


 
Let's take a closer look at that magnificent scowl:

These photos were captured by Josh Sopp, who after Nationals was seen at his desk, looking about as dead as he felt, but he did have a medal to show for all his effort.

Nationals is Done...and I'm Even MORE Done.

photos courtesy Josh Sopp

 
The 8th installment of the U.S. Gondola Nationals is in the books, 
and what an amazing weekend we all had. 

Photos are coming in from many competitors and their friends/family members who were there - snapping away.

Thee photos in this post were provided by Josh Sopp - a guy I feel lucky to know and have been honored to row with.

If you have some photos you'd like to share, please send them to me at greg@gondola.com and I'm sure there will be a post to include them in.
Typically I post a fair amount after Nationals.

 Spectators on the dock, watching the activity on the course.

This year we had nine separate categories and I somehow thought it would be a good idea to race in eight of them.  
Having left ALL my energy out on the water for two days, 
my body is still recovering, but my mind, heart, and soul couldn't be better right now.

 A rush of rowing as the second heat of the Sprint Tandem event.

I'm still digging out and cleaning up (and hauling boats, and doing laundry, and unpacking boxes and coolers), so for now, enjoy some of the press from some great reporters and photographers who joined us at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Newport Beach.

https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2019-10-26/going-going-gondola-at-national-regatta-in-newport-beach

https://www.ocregister.com/2019/10/28/gondoliers-earn-their-stripes-and-inner-strength-at-u-s-gondola-nationals/

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for my nap.