Page 6 - July_2014

THE ART OF
Photo by Kris Dobie
SCULLING

By Jenevra Wetmore

CRAFTSBURY COMMON, VT. — “Imagine trying to “It’s not very hard at all to learn to scull passably,” he
learn how to hit a golf ball while also standing on a teeter- said, speaking from his years of experience coaching, “but
totter that’s only 12 inches wide ... in the middle of a lake.” it’s extremely hard to become proficient at it.”
This was the picture Noel Wanner, one of the associate di-
rectors and head coaches at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, TRAINING GROUNDS FROM THE START
conjured when describing sculling to me, a complete novice.
The Craftsbury Outdoor Center began in 1976 when

Now I am sitting on the mirror-like waters of Big Hos- the Spring family purchased the land, which was then the
mer Pond, a 2.25-mile long lake a few miles outside the vil- Cutler Academy campus. They converted it into a center for
lage of Craftsbury Common, in a boat so narrow my knees athletes by creating a Nordic ski trail and adding running
are knocking together — and that’s not just because I’m ner- and sculling camps. With the addition of sculling camps the
vous; it’s a tight and precarious perch just sitting there.
Center became the first rowing camp in North America.
Holding two oars purposely weighted to challenge my It remained a small family business until Dick Dreis-

balance, Wanner’s description seems all too accurate. The sigacker and Judy Geer purchased it in 2008. Dreissigacker
narrow boat rocks side to side as my guide, Jamie Chap- is one of the founders of Concept2, a company he started
man, keeps hold of the bow. Her presence supplies a false with his brother making composite racing oars, and now
sense of comfort as she instructs me to slide forward in the maker of the world’s most popular rowing ergometer,
boat, while warning me with a smile: “You’re probably go- among other rowing and skiing equipment. He married
ing to flip.”
Geer and the family settled near the company’s headquar-

I am participating in what coaches at the Craftsbury ters in Morrisville, Vt.
Outdoor Center call “the flip test,” an experience everyone Photo by Chris Milliman
Geer and Dreissigacker both coached sculling
learning to scull at the center must undergo before getting in camps at the Center and their three children skied there
a boat more suited to their expertise level. With no training during the time the Springs owned it. The couple wanted
and in a boat as narrow as mine, flipping, the goal of the Chapman’s instruction finally result in success, and I am other families to have the same experience at the Center
brought back to the dock.
test, is inevitable.
Although the experience has been a distinct reminder that they did, so they looked into purchasing the business
In no time at all — as I am just sitting there trying of the difficulty of sculling, I already feel much more confi- and growing its market.
not to move— one oar dips into the water at an angle I It was not a rushed process. Dreissigacker and Geer
find impossible to recover, tilting the boat steeply to the dent being in the boat on water and am eager to try again discussed the future of the Center with the Springs for al-
right and propelling me into the water. The full six min- and, hopefully, join the ranks of the few who gain profi- most two years, hoping to continue the Spring’s original vi-
utes I spend floundering to get back into the boat with
ciency. It is a goal within my grasps but, as Wanner told me, sion while adding new elements of their own. They eventu-
I most probably have a long way to go.

6 VTSPORTS.COM
JULY 2014