Wallingford Regatta – Fun, Physiology & Sports Science.

So I took the #dryrobe products up to the Wallingford Regatta @regattaresults over the bank holiday weekend. I have to admit its the first rowing event, apart from the Boat Race, Which I have ever been to.

We picked a beautiful weekend for it. The sun was out & and the venue was incredible. The Olympic rings displayed proudly on the bridge & the whole place was immaculate.

More pics up on our facebook page

Obviously the rowers know & remember the cold times all to well. We had a fantastic response to the products with so many positive comments & surprisingly busy seeing the sun was blazing & it was the first introduction of the products to the rowing community.

Definitely a different & interesting crowd of people. A couple of firm offers of investment, some talk of partnerships & some product development ideas left my head spinning a little but I took my youngest daughter along who made sure we didn’t forget to live in the moment, have a picnic, a couple of ice creams & take it the surroundings.

Great fun, great people. A disturbing amount of lycra® about the place for those not used to it but we will be getting very involved rowing It is obviously a huge sport with a wide ranging variety of disciplines & a huge amount of dedicated, enthusiastic & hardy competitors & participants.

But, as we have found with so many sports, they are compromising their performance by ignoring the obvious. I saw competitors shivering both pre & post race! It is incredible to me that this is happening in any sport. Let alone a sport like rowing.

Cold, wet athletes who have trained hard to be at the event apparently oblivious to the difference temperature can make to their performance & recovery.

I spoke to one rowing coach there (who I wont name) but I think he had a light-bulb moment. #anyadvantage

We are currently in talks with some of the countries leading experts in sports science with a view to producing some very interesting reading, facts figures & some hugely telling & interesting images too, centered around sport physiology, psychology, and biomechanics & the effects of the temperature on the body & muscles for different temperatures and wind velocities. Yes we are learning all the time.

But like most things in life, its simple & obvious, once you know it. #nevergetcold