Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are not connected to the boat. Rowing is divided into two disciplines: sculling and sweep rowing. In sculling, each rower holds two oars, one in each hand, while in sweep rowing each rower holds one oar with both hands. There are several boat classes in which athletes may compete, ranging from single sculls, occupied by one person, to shells with eight rowers and a coxswain, called eights. There are a wide variety of course types and formats of racing, but most elite and championship level racing is conducted on calm water courses 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long with several lanes marked using buoys.
Ocean rowing is the sport of rowing across oceans. Some ocean rowing boats can hold as many as fourteen rowers; however, the most common ocean rowboats are designed for singles, doubles, and fours.
JulieAngus is a Canadian rower, adventurer, writer, cyclist and entrepreneur, married to the explorer Colin Angus.
Victoria Murden McClure is an athlete, adventurer, chaplain, lawyer, and university administrator who was the first woman and the first American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, which she did in 1999. She was also the first woman and first American to ski to the geographic South Pole and the first woman to climb the Lewis Nunatak in the Antarctic. She is the president of Spalding University, a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. She also served as the Chair of the Board of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), an outdoor education school headquartered in Lander, Wyoming, that emphasizes environmental ethics and wilderness excursions.
John Fairfax was a British ocean rower and adventurer who, in 1969, rowed across the Atlantic and became the first person to row solo across an ocean. He subsequently went on to become the first to row the Pacific Ocean in 1971 and 1972.
Erden Eruç is a Turkish-American adventurer who became the first person in history to complete an entirely solo and entirely human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth on 21 July 2012 in Bodega Bay, California, United States. The journey had started from Bodega Bay a little more than five years earlier on 10 July 2007. The modes of transport included a rowboat to cross the oceans, a sea kayak for shorelines, a bicycle on the roads and hiking on trails, along with canoes for a few river crossings. The route he followed was 66,299 km (41,196 mi) long, crossed the equator twice and all lines of longitude, and passed over twelve pairs of antipodal points, meeting all the requirements for a true circumnavigation of the globe. Guinness World Records has officially recognized Eruç for the "First solo circumnavigation of the globe using human power" on a journey that lasted 5 years 11 days 12 hours and 22 minutes.
Sarah Dilys Outen is a British athlete and adventurer. She is also a motivational speaker in the UK and internationally. Outen was the first woman and the youngest person to row solo across the Indian Ocean and also the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Alaska. She completed a round-the-world journey, mostly under her own power, by rowing boat, bicycle and kayak, on 3 November 2015.
Katie Spotz is an American adventurer who became the youngest person to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, departing from Dakar, Senegal on January 3, 2010, and landing in Guyana on March 14, 2010. She was the first person to have swum the entire length of the Allegheny River in New York state and Pennsylvania.
Gérard d'Aboville is the first man to row across two oceans solo: the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. He crossed the Atlantic in 1980, travelling from Cape Cod to Brittany. D'Aboville previously built boats and organized races before undertaking this 3,500 mile trip, which he completed in 72 days. In 1981, he was a recipient of the Silver Olympic Order.
A junk raft is a type of home-built watercraft made of plastic bottles or other recycled materials constructed by artists and community-minded groups organizing recreational flotillas, or by environmentally concerned individuals seeking to draw attention to the problem of floating debris and the need for recycling. It can also be an improvised small, functional watercraft from readily available materials.
Debra Louise Searle MVO MBE, née Newbury, later Veal, is a British adventurer, businesswoman, author and keynote speaker. Searle is famous for having rowed across the Atlantic alone after her then husband and rowing partner, Andrew Veal, was rescued from their plywood rowing boat.
Chris Martin is a British rower.
Human-powered watercraft are watercraft propelled only by human power, instead of being propelled by wind power or an engine.
Mick Dawson is a former Royal Marine Commando, film maker, professional sailor and adventurer. He is best known for rowing the Pacific Ocean with friend and fellow ocean rower Chris Martin in a new state of the art vessel, Bojangles, which Mick built. In 2009, they completed their 7,000 mi (11,000 km) voyage in 189 days 10 hours and 55 minutes; a world first and earning a place in the Guinness Book of records.
Sylvia Cook is a British ocean rower and adventurer who, on 22 April 1972, became the first person to row the Pacific Ocean, in tandem with John Fairfax. With this accomplishment she became the first woman to row any ocean. The journey took 363 days at sea from San Francisco to Australia.
James Ketchell is a British adventurer. On 1 February 2014, Ketchell became the first person to complete the triathlon of rowing across the Atlantic Ocean, summiting Mount Everest and cycling around the world. On 22 September 2019, Ketchell landed his gyrocopter in Basingstoke, England, becoming the first person to circumnavigate the globe in an autogyro, flying for 175 successive days.
Angela Madsen was an American Paralympian sportswoman in both rowing and track and field. In a long career, Madsen moved from race rowing to ocean challenges before switching in 2011 to athletics, winning a bronze medal in the shot put at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. Madsen and teammate Helen Taylor were the first women to row across the Indian Ocean. She died in June 2020 while attempting a solo row from Los Angeles to Honolulu.
Aurelia Margaret Ditton, also known as Lia Ditton, is a British professional sailor, ocean rower, motivational speaker and conceptual artist.
Kiko Matthews is a British adventurer. On 22 March 2018, she became the fastest female to row the Atlantic, solo and unsupported. Matthews rowed the 3284 miles from La Gomera to Port St. Charles, Barbados in 49 days 7 hours and 15 minutes. She took over a week off the previous record held since 2002 by Anne Quemere.
Ocean Rowing Society International (ORSI) (prior to 2006 known as ORS), is the governing body for international ocean rowing and official adjudicator of ocean rowing records for Guinness World Records. ORSI was founded in 1983 in California by ocean rower Peter Bird and Kenneth F.Crutchlow FRGS. Current coordinators of ORSI are Tatiana Rezvaya-Crutchlow and Chris Martin, and Fiann Paul.
