Rowperfect Ergometer
Tim Wise
This may have been asked before but does anyone
know of an Australian distributor for the RowPerfect
ergometer?
Thanks in advance.
Tim Wise
Tim Allen
Hi,
My school recently got one of these machines.
Actually I used to today.
For the first time they are very hard to use!!
I think they got it through Jeff Sykes in Geelong??
-=TiM=-
Tim Wise wrote in message <3510a...@203.14.212.6>...
Koster J.A.
This may have been asked before but does anyone
know of an Australian distributor for the RowPerfect
ergometer?Thanks in advance.
Tim Wise
Baalder Esch 8
7772 JV Hardenberg
The Netherlands
by phone: +31 523 27 01 84
or fax: +31 523 27 01 85
-- Adriaan Koster ro...@bosbaan.amsterdam.nl a3aan#cs,vu,nl - http://www,cs,vu,nl/~a3aan voice: +31 20 4447658
M.W. Ottow
Tim Wise wrote:
>
> This may have been asked before but does anyone
> know of an Australian distributor for the RowPerfect
> ergometer?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Tim Wise
The representative for Australia (and surroundings) is:
Care Rowperfect Australasia
attn. Peter Mills
9B Piermark Drive
North Harbour Industrial Estate
Albany
Auckland
New Zealand
E-mail: scu...@xtra.co.nz
phone: ++64.94154404
fax: ++64.94154480
mobile: ++64.21634956
Peter Mills was member of a recent successfull olympic NZ-8.
Inspired by the current "erg score" discussion and all positive remarks
about the Rowperfect ergometer I like to enter a contribution.
Anybody can of course question my rowing qualifications, since I am a
fun-rower without real race experience. But with respect to the
Rowperfect I feel to be in very good (elite) company.
I did buy a Concept II Model C a year ago. Last month I discovered and
tried the Rowperfect during a visit to Cas Rekers (the
designer/constructor). I immediately felt sorry not to have discovered
his machine earlier and to have done a wrong investment. However, you
can spend your money only once.
I cannot suppress an urge to share my enthousiasm about Rowperfect.
Notice to the "web-police": I don't have any commercial relation with
Cas Rekers or Rowperfect. The only relation is our nationality and
living less than 60 km from each other.
The Rowperfect is more a rowing simulator than any other ergometer.
The essential difference with others is that the combined foot-stretcher
and flywheel-assembly also slides on the same bar as the seat does.
This combination weighs about the same as a single scull, therewith
perfectly simulating the shell dynamics and response to the rower.
A shell moves freely with respect to the water and the seat moves freely
with respect to the shell (in longitudinal direction). This is similar
with the Rowperfect.
The rail-bar is bended a little bit downwards therewith giving the seat
the tendency to stay at same spot. While rowing you push in fact the
footstretcher away.
The effect during rowing is a real catch without dead stroke and a
fluent pull-through without shock-forces to the back, therewith reducing
chances on injuries to back, knees and shoulders.
To further prevent injuries the seat becomes unstable when you don't sit
correct. Since rowing then becomes difficult you get immediate feedback.
Put two Rowperfects parallel to each other, then rigidly interconnect
the both seats and you have a perfect pair/double simulator. This has
been proven in Delft NL last january with the elite rowers Frans Goebel
and Peter Haining. This can not be successfully done with any other
ergometer.
My experience with the Concept II is that an extra arm-pull is rewarded
in ergo score, however it is not rewarded in the boat and my ergo-score
is much more optimistic than my real boat-speed.
Cas Rekers told me that the elite rowers trying his machine came close
to their personal best times. Bad rowing is discouraged by the
Rowperfect, in any case it is not rewarded. The Rowperfect shows a
realistic calibration.
Besides the excellent simulator-qualities of the basic machine
analytical features can be offered by an interface (with software) for a
personal computer. A.o. the power curve of 100 strokes can then be
stored and displayed, therewith enabling comparison of different rowers
and enabling fault diagnosis.
What are your goals with indoor rowing?
boat-speed or ergo-score
pleasure or torture
rower or fitness freak
rowing or just loosing weight
When you select choices II, you can stick to a non-rowing concept.
For first choices, there is a perfect solution!
Recently Adriaan Koster advised a Rowperfect internet-site:
http://www1.tip.nl/~t014513/rowing/rowp_doc.htm.
This is not an official Rowperfect site. It is the private site of Rene
Breeuwer in Delft NL, who is a proud owner of a Rowperfect. At his site
Rene presents a translated paper from Cas Rekers, which gives further
Rowperfect backgrounds.
Cas Rekers is not yet connected to the internet, although he intends to
appear with a site in the second half of this year, especially after I
informed him about the lively ergo discussions.
Cas Rekers is a pensioned mechanical development engineer/manager and
lives in a village in the eastern part of the Netherlands. He imports
the beautifull Carl Douglas shells into the Netherlands.
Cas did develop the Rowperfect 10 years ago, in first instance for his
daughter, who was far from happy with the Concept II and the danish
Gjessing ergometers. He assembles the machines himself at home in his
garage.
As an engineer technique attracts him more than commerce. Maybe
therefore his product is not so wellknown as it deserves.
Time for a change.
As soon as I have saved some money I buy a Rowperfect and you can find
my ad "Model C for sale, as new, hardly used".
Greetings,
Martin Ottow
M.W. Ottow
In my previous message I made some mistakes on the pair/double
simulator:
The dual Rowperfect ergometer configuration is not constructed by
interconnecting the both seats, but by rigidly interconnecting the
flywheel/footstretcher assemblies.
This set-up was already proven two years ago in The Hague NL (instead of
this year in Delft).
It was proven by Frans Goebel and Juri Jaanson (instead of Peter
Haining). See photo in Rene Breeuwer's webpage.
By the way, Cambridge uses the Rowperfect already for more than a year.
Oxford recently bought them too. Probably too late to beat Cambridge
this year.
Redgrave and Pinsent are Rowperfect adepts too.
>
> Greetings,
> Martin Ottow
Joseph D. Mangine
you are comparing concept2 and row perfect.From your explanation it
seams the row perfect has a sliding rigger and stretcher assembly As we
know concept 2 has a sliding seat I,ve seen sliding rigger boats I rowed
one once .I,ve even seen themraced. Thay were reported to be faster then
sliding seat boats but the evidence was scant.In any case we dont in
most cases row sliding rigger boats.The concept 2 as you explained has
short commings Like it is to forgivingof bad rowing .It forgives you
slaming in to the catch or diving at the catch or bad slide control. It
even rewards bad rowing.Think of andy Sudduth winning at the crash Bs
pulling the hanle of the erg up to his chin.But thay filled a gap. Be
fore we had ergs winter training consisted of waights running maby
rowing tanks if you were lucky. Any strenuous activity shoveling snow
was one of my favorites. I build rowing tanks not every program or club
can afford a tank.Just as you cant give every soldier a tank you can
give them a rifel . That is how basic the erg has be come to winter
training were the water freezes. If you use the erg to baby sit your
crew like some parents use the T.V. with out supervision bad habits can
develop. So the coach if you have one must supervise training .To
emfhasize good technique and not what gets better split times.Be cause
we can see mistakes we can correct them. The day you are in an erg race
you can finesse the erg and row the style that gets the best time.
On the other hand if you are rowing a sliding rigger erg problems like
diving at the catch or slaming into the catch or bad slide control be
come uncoachable.Be cause thay have ben taken out of the equation.Who
could even imagine what bad habits were being nurtured untill the rower
gets back on a slideng seat again.
Carl Douglas
In article <6f0jd0$smi$1...@newsd-134.iap.bryant.webtv.net>, Joseph D.
Mangine <roundro...@webtv.net> writes
>you are comparing concept2 and row perfect.From your explanation it
>seams the row perfect has a sliding rigger and stretcher assembly As we
>know concept 2 has a sliding seat I,ve seen sliding rigger boats I rowed
>one once .I,ve even seen themraced. Thay were reported to be faster then
>sliding seat boats but the evidence was scant.In any case we dont in
>most cases row sliding rigger boats.
Joseph, you've missed the point of Martin's pean on the Rowperfect, but
I do agree the sliding rigger's alleged merits are oversold at best.
Martin paraphrased my own account of Rowperfect's function & merits,
written while, for 7 or 8 years to 1997, we were its UK agent.
Rowperfect bears no relation to a sliding-rigger boat. But its simple
design does closely replicate the real mechanical interactions of a
sliding-seat boat. A smaller, free-sliding mass (the boat, equated by
the sliding stretcher-flywheel assembly) interacts with a larger, also
free-sliding, mass, the rower, with the two joined at stretcher & oar-
handle.
Every other erg replaces the lightweight "boat-equivalent" part with the
gazillion-ton mass of Mother Earth. That is why all other ergs are poor
rowing simulators - particularly at the catch.
We promoted Rowperfect to rowers & coaches who, on using it, all said
how very much more like real rowing it felt, & how useful its output.
But C-II holds the rowing establishment's minds, & the consequent fear
of using something unconventional, from top to bottom of the sport, kept
sales low. The machine was also rather unforgiving of bad technique,
looked too much like C-II & cost too much. But if you want to win, that
cost was not really so great! Some good scullers, including Haining &
Goebel, were early converts - which shows that to be champion it takes
the brains to ignore the crowd - but sales were too slow. We were keen
to invest in Rowperfect to upgrade the design and reduce its price, but
finding it impossible to agree a working basis with Cas Rekers we quit
the Rowperfect agency. Cas's entitled to do it his own way, after all,
& our long friendship with him matters more than a bit of commerce
(besides, we've spent our money instead on one or 2 other rowing related
projects, of which more will be heard in the next few months...).
But then Harry Mahon, the international coach, saw the merits of the
machine we'd supplied to Cambridge UBC (& others that had reached his
New Zealand homeland). With Harry's reputation backing Rowperfect, the
UK establishment has dared to wake up to its clear advantages. Harry is
now Rowperfect's UK agent. We wish him good sales, & good health.
If Rowperfect does now eat into the erg market it may bring significant
improvements in rowing technique. Will that also encourage a generally
more analytical approach to the physics of boat propulsion, covering not
only how we row & apply our work, but what we row with? Just as some
ergs are better (for rowers) than others, so are some boat designs, some
blades, some riggers, some rigs ..... and the differences are
significant & readily measurable.
Cheers
Carl
PS
To those whose enquiries via our website or e-mail got no reply:-
A bug (I can be no more specific) meant we lost some "feedback"
responses, apparently over some time. A hard-disk crash a week ago
brought matters to a head.
Please contact us if your enquiry was lost by either route (we always
reply).
C.
Carl Douglas
Carl Douglas Racing Shells
The Boathouse, Timsway, Chertsey Lane, Staines TW18 3JZ, Great Britain
URL http://www.rowing-cdrs.demon.co.uk TEL +44 (0) 1784-456344
E-mail carld...@rowing-cdrs.demon.co.uk FAX +44 (0) 1784-466550
Rob Bristow
Don't Know if this is any use but the NZ distributor is
Peter Mills
14 Croydon Road
Mt Eden
Auckland
Ph +64 9 415 4404
fax: +64 9 415 4480
email: scu...@xtra.co.nz
Koster J.A.
Carl Douglas wrote:
> (besides, we've spent our money instead on one or 2 other rowing related
> projects, of which more will be heard in the next few months...).
Are you involved in the geared oar developed by Reinders in the Netherland?I
just read about this, it's an oar with a switch in the handle that enables
the
rower to change the loading whilst rowing!
I would like to hear more about this.
A3aan.
Stuart
I think you got the wrong idea of what the rowperfect erg is about. Its
is a sliding freewheel strechter and a sliding seat combination. The
seat is not fixed it slides. It similar to a CII excepte the streater
and freewheel combination slide as well as the seat.
The combination of two means that problems like slaming into the catch
and bad slide control all show up by the freewheel slaming into end bar
stop. Its the same as a boat if you slam into front chocks you push the
boat backwards and check it. Take my word a rowperfect tells a rower
when they're doing it right and when they are doin it wrong. The
rowperfect by its design stops bad habits from beign nurtured in the
absence of a coach.
Stuart.
Joseph D. Mangine wrote:
>
> you are comparing concept2 and row perfect.From your explanation it
> seams the row perfect has a sliding rigger and stretcher assembly
>
Carl Douglas
Koster J.A. writes
>Carl Douglas wrote:
>
>> (besides, we've spent our money instead on one or 2 other rowing related
>> projects, of which more will be heard in the next few months...).
>
>Are you involved in the geared oar developed by Reinders in the Netherland?I
Nope! And no fishing please. You'll just have to be patient a while
longer.
But meanwhile watch the Boat Race this Saturday if you can. And see all
those AeRoWing riggers we've made quietly & cleanly doing the business
(for both sides).
Cheers-
Carl
Tim Wise
Hi Tim, it may have been a RowPerfect
but it would have not been supplied by
Jeff Sykes and Associates. They are agents
for Concept II only so it was most likely
a Concept II model C you where using.
Tim Wise
Tim Allen wrote in message <6eqntd$1r9$1...@perki.connect.com.au>...
>Hi,
>My school recently got one of these machines.
>Actually I used to today.
>For the first time they are very hard to use!!
>I think they got it through Jeff Sykes in Geelong??
>-=TiM=-
>
>Tim Wise wrote in message <3510a...@203.14.212.6>...
>>This may have been asked before but does anyone
>>know of an Australian distributor for the RowPerfect
>>ergometer?
>>
Carl Douglas
Koster J.A. writes
>Carl Douglas wrote:
>
>> (besides, we've spent our money instead on one or 2 other rowing related
>> projects, of which more will be heard in the next few months...).
>
>Are you involved in the geared oar developed by Reinders in the Netherland?I
>
>I would like to hear more about this.
>
Nope! And no fishing please. You'll just have to be patient a while
longer.
But meanwhile watch the Boat Race this Saturday if you can. And see all
those AeRoWing riggers we've made, quietly & cleanly doing the business
(for both sides).
Cheers-
Carl
--
Carl Douglas
Full Name
Tim
The distributor for Australia/New Zealand is based in New Zealand. He
was at the Nat
Champs at Lake Barrington last year, but I don't have his card any
more.
I expect Mark Dwyer at Essendon RC would have the contact details so
will give him a
call and pass them onto you
Jamie
row...@bu.edu
Anyone know where I can see or try one of these in the USA?
Dave LeFebvre
Freshman Crew Coach
Boston University