Olympia Area Rowing

🚨 Calling all Orangetheory Fitness athletes, crossfitters, gym-goers and fitness enthusiasts! It’s time to take those erg skills on the water! Come check out our Learn to Row classes and see what rowing (off the erg!) is all about!

Check the link in our bio for more information. We’ve got spots waiting for you!

Masters rowers got a little dose of vitamin “sea” this morning complete with sun dogs 🌈, baby seals 🦭(viewed from appropriate distance!), beautiful water 🌊 and good company!

AND THEY’RE OFF! Best of luck to OAR member Haleigh Werner and Rod Sternagel as they compete in the 2026 The Race To Alaska, an engineless 750-mile sea race. 😮 This year’s race features 41 teams from around the globe.

Stage 1: The Proving Ground: Port Townsend to Victoria, BC. Teams have 36 hours to complete this without getting rescued. Stage 2: Full race - Victoria to Ketchikan, AK. No official race course, just two waypoints: Seymour Narrows and Bella Bella.

This remarkable duo set out June 18 in their 21’ rowboat — Team Laughing Roomba. You can follow their progress live on the Race 2 Alaska website. You can also learn more about the duo, follow along with them and hear an interview with them on the R2AK podcast.

https://r2ak.com/2026-teams-full-race/team-laughing-roomba/

They’re also on Facebook: We Are A Laughing Roomba.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1C24yfXExW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We’re cheering for you, Haleigh and Rod! The old adage still applies: ROW WELL, GO FAST, HAVE FUN (and stay safe!).

Photos: 📸 Team Laughing Roomba

Masters rowers were out early to catch the sunrise 🌅 this morning! If you’ve ever been curious about rowing check out OAR Learn to Row classes in comments! 🚣🏽‍♀️

Summer is here — it’s the perfect time to learn to row! OAR’s adult Learn to Row classes are officially underway and offer several paths for new rowers. Our next Intro to Team Sculling class (see image 2) is June 27 & 28. Again, no rowing experience is needed! Come down to the boathouse and learn a new sport this summer - you might find a new hobby (and friends!) in the process.

🚨 Link to the Learn to Row page: https://www.olympiaarearowing.org/adult-rowing/learn-to-row 🚨

After three days of weather delays and cancellations, racing got back under way in earnest on Saturday! We’ll have more photos from the regatta to share with everybody later, but here’s a rundown of the today’s events and outcomes:

The day started with the Men’s U17 2x, and Cam and Johnny delivered a fantastic semifinal showing. The two 15-year-olds battled through to the A Final with a 4th-place finish in Semifinal 1. Tomorrow’s competition will be tough as ever, but they are up to the challenge.🙌🏻

The Men’s U17 4x put together a gutsy day of racing but were not able to make their A Final goal. In their semifinal, they missed out on shot at potium after being outsprinted by Oak Neck Rowing Academy by less than a quarter of a second. The 5th place finish set them up as the boat to beat in the B Final.

Due to the tightened schedule from this week’s weather delays, the guys had to turn around and row their B Final less than three hours later. In that race, the crew started strong, controlled the pace from out front until the final 500 meters. But the heat and fatigue caught up with them. With the fuel running low they did not have quite enough sprint left and again crossed the line in 5th.

The Men’s Youth 2- had a much better C Final than Thursday’s time trial. Alden and Silas found their speed and crossed the line in 2nd - a great final effort to end their Nationals campaign.

The women’s U17 4x took 7th in their C Final in an exciting, hard-won sprint against Seattle Prep at the finish. That was despite catching a buoy-induced full crab just before the line, twisting the oar around completely in its oarlock. The oar and boat were fine, but the oarlock did not fare as well.

We are so proud of our athletes, who have continued to persevere, row with heart and compete to the best of their abilities. On to Sunday and our last day of competition! Let’s go OAR!

🚨NATS UPDATE! 🚨 There’s been plenty of Florida ⛈️⚡️🌩️ to contend with this week, creating some delays for participants.

The Men’s Youth 2- was first up and raced on schedule Thursday. It was a very competitive field, and while the result was not what the guys (Silas and Alden) were hoping for, and they chenneled their energy into their next effort!

🙌🏻 BREAKING! 🙌🏻 Congrats to Silas and Alden for placing SECOND in today’s C FINAL! Way to go, guys!!! 🥈

The Men’s U17 2x (Johnny and Cam) had a very strong race, placing 9th in the time trial and earning a spot in the semifinals. Those watching the action on OVERNGHT saw Johnny & Cam nearly close the gap on the crew starting ahead of them. They came off the water thrilled to have the opportunity to race in tomorrow’s A Final at 9:24 AM PST.

The U17 4x raced today, coming in 5th in the B final! Congrats to Oscar, Jackson, Greg and Hayden!

Our women’s U17 4x rowed well, went fast and had fun, placing in today’s C final at 12:46 PM PST! Let’s go - you go this Phoebe, Tabi, Matilda and Anabel!

We’ll continue to post updates but results are posted to RegattaCentral! Super proud of our athletes for giving it their best and being flexible in really challenging weather conditions.

More to come! Let’s go OAR!

Gorgeous June morning for the adult team, complete with nice flat water. Had the chance to get an 8 off the rack and do a little sweeping! 🧹 How lucky are we to row here?!

They’re ready! 🙌🏻 Sending all the good vibes and BIG OAR ENEGY with these athletes when they head out to Youth Nationals in Sarasota! They managed to get one more practice under their belts this morning in some **classic** PNW conditions. ☔️ 🌊 😵‍💫

And - AND! — yes! There’s still time to support their trip to Sarasota — hit the link below. Every donation helps and thank you to all who have already helped us cruise past our original goal of $5k to $8,100! 🙌🏻

https://givebutter.com/2026-youth-nationals-fundraiser-e5yejn

Help us wish our athletes well! Good luck to:

📣 Anabel, Matilda, Phoebe and Tabi (Women’s U17 4x)
📣 Hayden, Jackson, Greg and Oscar (Men’s U17 4x)
📣 Jo and Mikhaila (Women’s Youth 2x)
📣 Johnny and Cam (Men’s U17 2X)
📣 Silas and Alden (Men’s Youth 2-)

Huge thank yous also to our coaches, parents and OAR families for their time, support and dedication. You are appreciated! Let’s goooooo!

♥️🖤 ROW WELL, GO FAST, HAVE FUN! ♥️🖤

📣 They’re putting in the work! OAR youth rowers are fine tuning things for next week’s trip to Youth Nationals in Sarasota! Help us meet our fundraising goal - we are THIS CLOSE to the $7,500 mark! Hit the link in our bio or visit the O.A.R. website. TYIA! (thank you in advance!) Let’s goooooo OOOOOAAAARRRR!