The Dubai Rowing and Sculling Club is born

An introduction to the DRSC from Tammy Bernard, August 2005

In this day and age it will not surprise you to hear that we met over the internet. It began in January this year with an initial introduction through an international rowing website. For the first time since my arrival last year, it seemed that it may actually be feasible to row in Dubai. A few fervent emails later and we came together for our first rowing club meeting.

Now looking back on the last 6 months, in some respects, it has been a long haul to get to where we are now and we still have a long way to go. However, we have already managed to hurdle some major stumbling blocks along the way and our enthusiasm and determination is as vibrant as ever.

Rowing is almost unheard of in the UAE and the likes of Sir Steve Redgrave (five times Olympic champion) are in the realms of fairy tales. So, how are we making it happen? Five rowing enthusiasts and one keen rowing supporter came together to form a committee for what is now known as the Dubai Rowing and Sculling Club (DRSC). After much confusion as to whether we needed permission to set up the club, and from who we had to obtain it we eventually gained consent and support from the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC).

DRSC now has a logo, a website and an ever increasing list of keen people to join us. However, DRSC has no 'home'. In order for us to exist we need to find a site by the waters edge, either at the Marina or on the Creek, to build a boat house, for the boats we have yet to buy. We have had some tentative offers, but as yet nothing has been confirmed. DRSC also needs sponsorship in order to finance the construction of the boat house and the purchase of boats and other necessary equipment.

DRSC hopes to make rowing accessible to everyone, expatriates and locals alike. We also hope to introduce it in to schools, to offer a youth program, with a view of having the UAE represented at the Olympics in the future.

I hope that this article will inspire people to offer their support in anyway that they can. If you are already a keen rower and would like to find out more, or would like to learn to row in Dubai, or think that you may be able to offer some help in getting this club off the ground, please do not hesitate to contact us, you can either log on to our website www.dubairowingandscullingclub.com or email us on rowingindubai @ gmail.com.

Picture: from stroke to bow - Frederick Douglas (Australian), Jeanette Bennett (Australian), Kenneth Kronborg (Danish) and Tammy Bernard (British). Click to enlarge

Editor's note: - On Monday September 5th the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, was formally made a member of FISA at the 2005 Annual Congress. Perhaps progress on the DRSC and other UAE rowing projects will begin to speed up now that the region has representation at the international level...