Paul Rosenquist

I do not function properly if I do not have a clear goal to work towards.

So here we go:

The nearest goal (coming weekend) is the Swedish National Championship in rowing.
I have for the time being said farewell to the single and I will be rowing different crew boats.
The biggest challange will be in the double scull. Henrik and me. Henke putt me in the stroke seat wich makes it really exciting. Having rowed the good part of 4000km in the single this season I can assure you that it is not so easy to adjust to the faster moving crew boats. Also to set a rythm that is easy to follow and enhance for the guys behind you is a challange. We have only perhaps been out 5 times or so and it really did not feel naturally good from the start. Henke had a hard time finding my rythm, and I had a hard time putting down a good accelerating stroke. Two days ago we went out in the pitch dark….autumn is coming and steeling our daylight here…
Taking away the sense of vision, we were totally dependant on feeling. WAUW! And what a feeling. We finally got the boat to move a sweet as can be, and even the quick bursts were working great! Probably our fastest competitor will be Lassi and his coach Pliggen. They have won this event now for many years in a row. Walle and I tried to stop their winning streak two years ago, but fel a few seconds short. Lassi is stronger and faster now…som am I, I am definately rowing a lot better now. Pliggen, I have spotted on the erg during our world cups etc, so I guess he is in pretty good shape. Henke, ..well he is Henke..it does not matter in which shape he is…winning is the only existing thing in his mind.
Than there is the quad. Me again in stroke seat. This is eaven more difficult. Add to this also the fact that I’m steering the 12meter long boat with my right foot, trying to put down a solid stroking rythm that the three guys (Henke, Walle and David) can build on. We were out last night again in the dark and it seems to work. It is far from good yet,…but come race day it will be fine. The cool thing is, that even though these races are pretty much the opposite in lets say the world cups were I really feel the pressure anyway. Knowing that the performance of the entire crew is more or less dependant on me is a cool feeling. Its obviously the same in the singe…I do bad, the boat wont move. But than the consequences are only for me,..now its for the entire crew. Be it 2, 4 or 8! Yepp.. I’m in the 8 as well. Here am, thank god, in the no.4 seat, meaning my mission is easy. Just haul as hard as I can. Unfortunately for the other competing crews, I have to say after our last few sessions doing speedwork in up to 1000m pieces and rating 38 that we are an extremely fine moving machine! Good fun!

Next goal:
Coastal Rowing World Championships in Cannes.
This sounds pretentious, but it is only for club teams. It is how ever the biggest coastal rowing race in the world and it is the official Worlds. I will row the 16km coarse outside the harbour of Cannes in the Single. REALLY looking forward to that! Louise will also row the single as it seems and the girls will also have a crew boat!

After that:
A further away goal, lets say summer 2009, will be to paddle the Molokai crossing in Hawai. A 70km Surfski race between two islands. I guess, this is the ultimate macho thing right up there with the Iron Man competition it must be the coolest thing in the world. 5meter swell, hard winds (mostly from behind) and a 40cm wide open kayak…running down the slopes of water doing 35km/h is something that I guess is more than addictive…
A long way to go though. I have competed in such a race one in Cape Town, and I have to say, I really got a lot of respect for the dudes doing this on a daily basis…during the countless unvoluntary swimms I really was not to comfy with the shark rumours etc. The 9° warm waters werent really making things easy as my shorts and tanktop were not giving that much warmth.

Ok, so that is a little update of what is happening now. Further I am working hard at Point65 again and we will be heading for our anuall most important fair in Nurnburg next week…yeehaa,..1700km with the trailer. But it will be worth it as we usually do great business there.

C ya!

Paul