Durban North residents hope to grow sport of surf boat rowing
Monique Boshoff and Lucy Markewicz said they would love to see more women involved in the sport.
THE Ladies A Crew of the Marine Surf Lifesaving Club recently won the surf boat rowing event at this year’s DHL Lifesaving South Africa National Club Championships in Gqeberha.
Two of the crew members, who are Durban North residents, Monique Boshoff and Lucy Markewicz, said they hope to grow the sport of surf boat rowing by getting more women involved.
“We refer to ourselves as boaties, but the sport is surf boat rowing,” explained Markewicz. “It’s an oar-driven boat where we start from the shore and row out through the surf, around a buoy, and row back to shore. It is quite a physical sport, but I love it because I’m an adrenaline junkie. I first got involved through Monique (Boshoff), who recruited me.
“We paddle surfski together and she asked me if I wanted to give it a bash about a year ago. Through my training, I was fortunate enough to compete at my first-ever lifesaving champs, which was an awesome experience. It was freezing cold in Gqeberha, but our Ladies A Crew members performed phenomenally.
A race is about 300m, starting from and ending on the shore.
Boshoff said her aim is to grow the sport of surf boat rowing among women in KZN.
“We’ve done a few learn-how-to-row sessions, and that is one of the ways we hope to grow the sport. As a chief recruiter for our crew, I’ve seen the sport grow among members of our club, but I want to widen that scope and see every KZN lifesaving club boast a women’s crew in surf boat rowing. Our boat captain, who is also our sweep, Mark Mulder, has built a ‘gees’ or a vibe at the club and I feel that has added to our success. Yes, we want to be competitive, but we also want to enjoy the sport and have fun. In future, I hope to see more women take up the sport, which makes it more competitive,” Boshoff said.
Follow the Marine Surf Lifesaving Club on Instagram @mslc_boaties.
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