Steady State Podcast

When Susan Kinne cracked the bottom of a wooden hull, she never could have guessed that nearly 25 years later she’d be a master craftsman handling boat repairs of all sizes at Lake Washington Rowing Club. Just north of 70 years old, Susan sets pitch, patches damaged hulls, and builds Frankenstein boats. She is a powerhouse with tools and in a scull, and is a well of information about Pocock Racing...

Rock City Rowing members will tell you that Arkansas is sorely underrated. Located on a beautiful stretch of water in Little Rock, RCR is home to one of just two boathouses in the entire state offering programs for masters and juniors. RCR Head Coach Ted Riedeburg and three masters rowers tell us about bringing rowing back to Little Rock after a long hiatus, and how rowing changed their lives. GUE...

Isaac Kenyon just set his third ultra-distance world record on the Concept2 indoor rower. This follows on the heels of other huge achievements, like rowing the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, and swimming the English Channel. We dive into the philosophy and motivation that helped him break free of the lure of screen time, and the coping mechanisms necessary to take on...

Brook Yimer started coaching as a volunteer in high school. Just six years later he's the program coordinator for STEM to Stern. He’s also Senior Assistant Coach and Youth Lead Coach for Athletes Without Limits, and Assistant Coach at Wakefield High School. Brook honed his leadership skills as a high school and collegiate rower, which today is clearly represented by his advocacy for – and involvem...

The aches of a teenage growth-spurt, years of collegiate and high performance training and racing, and injuries sustained in an accident, all inform Lisa Lowe’s personal and professional attitudes and opinions about self-care. Now a PR3 rower and physical therapist in Boston, Lisa’s goal is to cultivate a culture within rowing where we support each other without breaking each other. GUESTS Lisa Lo...

Ask most any rower about the perfect rowing conditions and they’ll wax poetic about  glassy calm water and zero wind, when a blade can quietly drop into the water at the catch, release clean, and the boat glides across the surface undisturbed. But ask a coastal rower about great conditions and the answer will be completely different. It’ll involve navigating waves, executing turns around buoys, an...

When it comes to clubs and boathouses we like to go behind-the-scenes to find out what makes them engaging, inclusive, successful, and fun! With that in mind, we’re going to the city of brotherly love to get to know Philadelphia City Rowing . PCR is a non-profit organization drawing on the proven power of sports to empower public school students to reach their highest potential. With a small staff...

In this first-of-its-kind episode, we invited Steady State Network fan Koen Elbers to join us for a chat. Koen is a masters rower and the Chairman of Alkmaarsche Roei- en Zeilvereeniging ( ARZV Rowing ) in Alkmaar, The Netherlands. After learning to row in university, then taking a 15-year hiatus from the sport, it was ARZV’s welcoming community that got him hooked. To give back, he took on the ro...

In 2016, Steven Dowd was a 37-year-old weekend warrior cyclist, living and training in London when an accident left him with a devastating spinal cord injury. Facing total paralysis and a bleak prognosis, Steven was motivated by his acceptance into a clinical research trial and a goal to walk by Christmas. With an exceptional personal will and the support of family and friends, Steven today is not...

Rowers and coaches across the country are spotting opportunities to step up – and step outside boxes – to share their love of rowing by establishing clubs for their communities.  This conversation brings together the founders of three clubs: Dave Harvey, Tacoma Rowing;  Katie Jones, North Carolina Rowing Center , and Sue Koscielski, Sweeps & Sculls Rowing . They get honest about heart-warming surp...

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Maurice Scott was just a kid when he was introduced to rowing during a learn to row camp at Bachelor’s Barge Club. But when he noticed that no one else looked like him at regattas on the Schuylkill River, his father’s moral support motivated him to keep at it. Five years later, as a member of a Philadelphia City Rowing’s newly-launched high school program, he was a...

Steady State Network believes access to opportunities to thrive should be inclusive regardless of ability to pay. That’s why we created the Changemaker Scholarship initiative . Throughout the year, we seek out educational and professional development events and courses for visionaries in the rowing community. With the help of sponsors, we were able to provide eight deserving rowers, coaches, and s...

On [S2] Ep 17 of Steady State Podcast, hosts Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan talk with CB Sands-Bohrer, Senior Manager of Coach Education at Community Rowing, Inc. (CRI); and Mitch McManus, 2019 Institute for Rowing Leadership (IRL) Fellow and newly-named Rowing Director and Head Coach of Shrewsbury High School Crew. If you are a rower or coxswain in the United States who’s ever thought “I want to...

On [S2] Ep 16 of Steady State Podcast, hosts Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan are joined by Tom Rooks (Dir. of Rowing, Williamsburg Boat Club ). This episode buzzes with authenticity as Tom shares his "fun first" mantra and how he prepares his juniors athletes to be better humans beyond the boathouse. Tom began to coach after 22 years in the United States Coast Guard, and he gets philosophical abou...

GCRA has been on Tara's radar for a few years, after she saw adaptive rower Kristen Jackson powering through an erg piece on social media. Tara started following the club's really open and welcoming public group on Facebook, and has always been impressed with their camaraderie, presence at regattas, impassioned calls for volunteers, and shout-outs and high fives for each other.   GCRA was founded...

In the early 1960s, Margie was turned away by a rowing coach in Boston because she was a woman. After a full career in journalism, and raising three kids, she learned to row at 60. Today – at 78 - she's stronger than she's ever been. Together with her husband Mickey, they proudly carry the torch for I, J, and K category rowers as members of Upper Valley Rowing Club and Chinook Performance Racing....

Steady State Network believes access to opportunities to thrive should be inclusive regardless of ability to pay so we created the Changemaker Scholarship initiative. Throughout the year, we seek out educational and professional development events and courses for visionaries in the rowing community. We are proud to partner with organizations and businesses to make these opportunities possible for...

As the Director of Sports Nutrition for USRowing, and in her own private practice, Liz Fusco helps Olympians, Paralympians, high performance athletes, recreationally active clients, and young athletes establish healthy relationships with food and  improve energy levels.   Liz is also a sports dietitian for the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the Oklahoma City High Performance Center. She m...

As a 5’1, 108lb freshman at Western Washington University, Rachel Le Mieux was literally picked up and placed in a coxswain seat. Thirty five years later she’s the head coach of Martha’s Moms , a competitive masters women’s team in Seattle, WA. She’s also a USRowing referee and FISA umpire. During her years in the cox seat, coach’s launch, and chase boat, Rachel’s seen her share of sketchy situati...

Oak Ridge Rowing Association was founded in 1978 and today is home to the Atomic Juniors and Masters Rowing Team. Oak Ridge offers a wide array of Learn-to-Row classes, hosts several championship regattas every year, and provides a world-class training venue to visiting crews. ORRA – built on the passion and enthusiasm of its community, coaches, and volunteers – successfully navigated COVID, keepi...

When recent podcast guest Tracy Falkenthal suggested we talk with Napoleon Griffin, we chased the lead. A decorated middle distance track runner who learned to scull as an adult, Napoleon beat male breast cancer and today strives to get as much out of life as possible. He also survived Hurricanes Irma and Maria which devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, causing long-lasting power outages and leaving re...

Eamon Glavin is a former high school and collegiate rower who started experimenting with cameras in boats and drones overhead to capture video of rowing unlike anything else we’ve seen in mainstream rowing media. In February 2021 he began following lightweight Olympic hopefuls through training and qualification trials to produce a rowing documentary about the journey to the Tokyo Olympics.

Take a look back at the launch of Steady State Network in June 2020, go behind the scenes of the podcast, get updates on our Changemaker Scholarship initiative, and listen in as co-founders Rachel Freedman and Tara Morgan go unscripted to talk about our own experiences as rowers and coaches.

We are really interested in backstories – the experiences on and off the water that make people the rowers, coaches, and coxswains they are today. And when it comes to clubs and boathouses we want to meet the people that make them vibrant, engaging, inclusive, successful, and of course, fun! With that in mind, our semi-regular club spotlight series takes us around the world. On this episode we hea...

An introduction to rowing as a teen in California completely changed the trajectory of Tracy Falkenthal's life. She has spent the years since paying it forward as a member of the Army National Guard, a firefighter, a personal trainer, health coach, and rowing coach. Today she's a member and coach at Texas Rowing Center in Austin, and is working in lock step with the Center's owner to develop and l...