Broken Oars Podcast

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, Broken Oars Podcast returns with Episode 7 – a Fosbury Flop of an effort to match the impossibly high bar set by our recent guests Sir Terence of Chipchase and Sir Peter of Brewer.

(You haven’t listened to Episodes Five and Six yet? Shame on you! Download them now! You know it makes sense. After all, those 3 x 6k’s will go far easier with some quality listening material in your headphones).

After the wonderful ramble through the highways and byways of rowing undertaken by Terence and the ‘guys, here’s how a grown adult talks: in complete, well-thought through paragraphs’ common-sense, inclusive vision of rowing as a sport for all offered by the inimitable Pete, we’ve reverted to type: your genial hosts, Lewin (posh, well-educated, southern) and Aaron (northern, dragged up, barely literate) saying stuff about the wonderful sport about rowing that might be considered libellous if anyone actually listened to us.

It starts well. For the first time in the podcast’s history, Lewin rather than Aaron suffers the now-traditional biweekly injury and in a controversial move the Broken Oars Podcast begins the campaign to rehabilitate Lance Armstrong back into polite society on the grounds that in a world gone mad (der), his complete and utter unrepentance and blunt acknowledgement that he would do it all again if given the chance offers a refreshing change to the cant, hypocrisy and fudging offered by most cheats and bullshit artists when they get caught.

Controversy nimbly provoked, we declare our keywords for the now-traditional Thames Tradesmen’s Broken Oars Podcast Drinking Game. Anyone with the words Frodo, Anduin, and Slaine the Avenger is in for a heavy night. Lock up the cat. Cancel all calls.

And then, housekeeping done, we get stuck into the main topic of discussion: who would make it into our fantasy rowing eight.

Now, if you know us, and you’ve listened to us before you know that we take this sort of thing incredibly seriously. Broken Oars Podcast’s Episode Four discussed Britain’s Coxless Fours triumphs through the ages in such forensic detail that British Rowing actually asked for a copy of the tape; and our comments on the relative merits of genuine giants of the sport split opinion to the point where oarsmen who won their Olympic gold medals in the same boat no longer speak to each other.

But being us, our calm, measured approach to a question deserving both rapidly descends into a welter of claims, counter-claims, questionable humour, a discussion of the cars in the Henley Royal Regatta carpark; why dyslexics rarely hang out together (we both are: we never see each other); rowing as a quest narrative; and what really, when you get right down to it, constitutes a fantasy rowing eight.

In the process, Aaron make claims for the necessity of opposable thumbs in a five-man; Lewin makes a case for why Anna Watkins should be in the boat with such passion that he calls her Anna Williams; we both ask whether singing ability is an accurate measure of rhythm and timing when it comes to rowing (hint: no); and ask the serious and pertinent central question: if James Cracknell makes the boat, will his seat have to be able to accommodate the camera crew and production company that will film the inevitable accompanying miniseries?

And does his hair deserve its own seat?

All of this?

And it’s out in time for the weekend?

Get some!

Front six rowing on, bow pair, out – of the boat, the crew and our lives. Swim home.

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Enjoyed this episode?

Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.

Thank You!

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/

                                          www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net

We discover that having launched a podcast, the world of social media has more trolls in it than the average folk tale, one particularly loathsome specimen having crawled out from under his rock to assert that GB's rowers were all dopers, because they had been trained by an East German Coach in the Mighty Jurgen Grobler - who had and had never hidden coming up through the old East German system, where doping was prevalent. After back-and-forths on Twitter which led to Sir MP DM'ing us to give us the very good advice not to bother with morons, we realised we had the perfect platform to discuss the issue with the pod. 

So we did. 

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As promised, Broken Oars Podcast returns on its week off to address the accusations levelled at Jurgen Grobler and British Rowing following the release of Episode Four.

If you haven't heard it yet (Why not? We're on Apple now - there's no excuse. Go and listen), Episode Four discussed Britain's Coxless Four Olympic Finals successes and performances. It dropped (as we believe the kids say to signify digital releases) on the same day that Jurgen Grobler stepped down as Head Coach of British Rowing after 29 years.

Barely had Episode Four hit the worldwide web before a very vocal group of trolls lumbered out from beneath their bridges and onto our Twitter feed, drawn by the trip-trapping sound of their trigger words: 'Jurgen Grobler', 'British Rowing' and 'Gold Medals.'

Although we tried to address the points raised by these individuals on Twitter, we realised that we'd stirred up something that needed addressing.

So here we are, addressing it. Never let it be said that the Broken Oars Podcast runs from a tough session. We have, after all, survived Runcorn in the rain and Green Lake in the first round at Henley Royal. 

Just.

In this episode, then, we resolve where Lionel Messi is going after Barcelona, we settle the 'Rule Britannia' Farageo, and we thank Thames Tradesmen for inventing the Broken Oars Podcast Drinking Game.

(WARNING: ANYONE WITH THE WORDS 'JURGEN', 'GDR', 'DOPING', AND 'TROLLS' ON THEIR CARD FOR THIS EPISODE IS IN FOR A HEAVY NIGHT).

Then, we address the comments, one-by-one and point-by-point.

We examine the subtext that a global, overarching conspiracy was launched from Henley-in-Thames to turn British Rowing into the dominant force in World Rowing (spoiler alert: it might not have been).

We discuss at Jurgen's appointment, his past in the GDR, and his subsequent stewardship of British Rowing, addressing how the narrative of his past has been presented and asking if it could have been more nuanced (hint - yes). We compare what is known now to what was known then, and assess the difficulties in clearly defining and apportioning blame and responsibility given the circumstances. 

We look at the evaluatory principles of 'beyond reasonable doubt' and 'on the balance of probability' that underpin all of our safeguarding institutions in the UK; and discuss the relevance of the rehabilitative principle in Jurgen's case before moving on to examine the UK's approach to doping testing, comparing British Rowing to its counterparts in the wider field of Team GB. In doing so, we talk about 'positive', 'negative' and 'negative but' testing in this context. 

Going on to look at the known impact of doping regimes on athlete performance, athlete welfare and the medal table, we look at British Rowing's performances since Jurgen Grobler's arrival, particularly in terms of the development of the men's and women's squads and our Olympic returns. We ask if there could be any other reason for Britain's steadily but not dramatically improving success on the rowing lake beyond doping (spoiler alert: it might have something to do with the creation of a World Class Start Programme and the arrival of funding and centralisation rather than little blue pills). 

We talk athlete physiology and the impact of doping on that, and note that British Rowing would be an entirely clean sport were it not for the antics of a couple of idiots from the Headington Road Young Offenders Institute Rowing Club (Hi, Oxford Brookes ...).

We discuss the importance of rowing culture vs. other sporting cultures and its significance in keeping doping in the sport at bay (we believe in doing the work, not shortcuts) and express a hope that it long continues (while acknowledging that we must not be complacent: it only takes two idiots to ruin the reputation of an entire sport).

Stern Four ... Drop Out. You're making Bow Four look bad.

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Enjoyed this episode?

Buy us a coffee, download a training plan, and support us so we can carry on making Broken Oars Podcast, the best rowing podcast in the world.

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/brokenoarsd.

Thank You!

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelandingstage/

                                          www.instagram.com/brokenoarsindoors/

Read more Broken Oars: www.thelandingstage.net

We were starting to realise that much as in real life, we could talk about anything on Broken Oars - and over the next four years we often did. As men of a certain age (old enough to know better, still young enough to occasionally not follow through on that) our rowing careers took place among a run of British Olympic success that had started with Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent and continued through to Tokyo - at this point postponed due to COVID. A lover of crews and crew boats, although capable single scullers, we decided to sit down and ask the question: did the modern age start with the GB Sydney Four, as the story suggests, or had there been a better British boat in that category since. It got spicy. It got silly. It got serious. Enjoy!

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After the magnificence that was Di Binley and Episode Three, Broken Oars is back with a humdinging corker of an Episode Four (they said modestly).

Released on the day that Jurgen Grobler, the greatest high performance coach in sporting history, stepped down from his role as Head Coach of British Rowing either through luck, insider knowledge of what was coming or happenstance we find ourselves celebrating some of the greatest hits of his legacy. 

(Let's be honest, it was luck).

In Episode Four, then, one of us breaks the other foot, the other laughs about it, we do our housekeeping (or as we're now calling it, airing our dirty laundry in public), and we stop John Inverdale and other salaried BBC presenters from stealing the catchphrases and insights Broken Oars has generated so far by pointing out that they're ours and they're copyrighted.

We float the idea of launching an official Broken Oars 'No James Cracknells Left Behind' t-shirt; and ask Hypatia from York to step in to settle the debate as to whether it was the ancient Greeks or Romans who originated the bath house culture, thus giving rise to the word 'bathetic' (could have something to do with drama, but we're rowers, so we aren't sure).

Then, and only then, do we get to the main course: a full and frank discussion of which GB Heavyweight Men's Coxless Four Olympic win was the best. We argue about judging criteria (purely and simple, which was the best row from a rowing perspective), we say things icons of the sport that means they'll probably never come on Broken Oars, but we also say things about other icons of the sport that means they might.

We discuss the glory and the dream that was Redgrave's Last Stand; we give props to a mighty Canadian boat at Athens; one of us (for the first time ever) says nice things about an Australian crew in the context of Beijing and then promptly ruins his reputation by going on to say equally nice things about the Australian crew at London 2012. We rhapsodise about the dominance of Louloudis et al at Rio and then we choose a winner before asking you to disagree with us on the Twitter feed.

Or agree with us, but you're all rowers, so that will never happen.

We go on to talk about the dangers of triumphalism and hubris with the future of British Rowing's Elite Programme up in the air, and ask if the future will be as glorious as the past.

It's almost like we knew Jurgen was going.

And then we bugger off.

No James Cracknells were harmed in the making of this episode.

(First published in August 2020)

Full crew ... come forward to row.

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Please follow us on:

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@brokenoarspodcast

Please order: 

A copy of our first book, Charlotte Jackson and the Magic Blanket: https://tinyurl.com/53674jbu

Please visit: 

Our Website: www.thelandingstage.net

It's turned into a toxic place, but we're also on Twitter: 

www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

Released on August 7th 2020, Episode Three saw Broken Oars Podcast welcome its first ever guest - the incredible, inimitable Di Binley. For some reason neither of us can remember, Dr. Lewin Hynes, yet to be dubbed the Southern One, flew solo on this episode - and does a brilliant job, because, well, he's brilliant. 

Want the original episode notes? Here they are. 

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A coming-of-age for Broken Oars Podcast as one of us works out how to edit audio; another of us breaks a foot; and we welcome our first guest to the pod:

Former owner and driving force behind Rock the Boat, the shop all rowers have used at some point, and still a fount of general rowing awesomeness, Di Binley joins us.

We chat about Di's background in rowing, Rock the Boat's founding and development, the evolution of rowing during her time in it - highlighting the importance of community; volunteers; being nice and having fun to this wonderful sport that we all know and love.

We also give a big shout-out to Rebecca Caroe and open our arms to the worldwide rowing community (while maintaining our (possibly deluded) belief that we can probably take most of them on the line ...).

Get Some!

Ladies and Gentleman, full crew, from backstops ...

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Please follow us on:

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@brokenoarspodcast

Please order: 

A copy of our first book, Charlotte Jackson and the Magic Blanket: https://tinyurl.com/53674jbu

Please visit: 

Our Website: www.thelandingstage.net

It's turned into a toxic place, but we're also on Twitter: 

www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

Our second episode was published on July 24th 2020. We still hadn't really got to grips with the whole podcast format thing at this point. We never really did, to be honest. We were having too much fun catching up with each other and talking to our amazing guests. We wouldn't change anything apart from perhaps uploading our conversations to Youtube. We made a decision early on to stick to audio, largely because at the time we just couldn't fathom why people would want to tune in to watch people having a chat together. Still, there it is.

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In Episode Two, Dr. Lewin Hynes, who would soon come to be known as The Southern One, and Dr. Aaron Jackson, who would soon come to be known as The Northern One got together to welcome you to the second Broken Oars Podcast where we proudly proclaimed that we were for rowers everywhere who believe that rowing was better a ten to twelve years ago - regardless of what year it is. 

All rowers, in other words. 

In our sophomore effort, we make the necessary factual corrections from the first effort; ensure that no dictatorships were harmed in the making of the podcast; apologise for our 'indie' sound quality; discuss whether there's a certain lack of personality in the current GB rowing set up; provide some background to the rowing careers of both hosts; and address the welcoming nature of rowing clubs to outsiders (hint - could do better); and ask finally 'whither 2K? - should the gold standard distance actually be the gold standard?'

(First published July 24 2020)

Full crew, come forward to row ...

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Please follow us on:

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@brokenoarspodcast

Please order: 

A copy of our first book, Charlotte Jackson and the Magic Blanket: https://tinyurl.com/53674jbu

Please visit: 

Our Website: www.thelandingstage.net

It's turned into a toxic place, but we're also on Twitter: 

www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

(Deep gravelly voice): On this day five years ago, while the world languished in the depths of COVID, in a time when there were NO rowing podcasts (other than a few we've forgotten to mention), two men got together to change the world as we know it ... 

They were Dr. Lewin Hynes, who would come to be known as The Southern One, and Dr. Aaron Jackson, who would come to be known as The Northern One and they created the world's first, only and still best rowing podcast. 

And they called it Broken Oars Podcast. 

And rowers looked and listened and saw it was good. 

We retired after interviewing Sir Matthew Pinsent last April, weeping for we had no more words to conquer. Little did we realise that Finn Hamill would happen ... 

And so in the spirit of leveraging IP in the age of AI (no, we don't know what it means either) and coming from the land where there's never anything on but repeats on the BBC, we're rereleasing our Broken Oars Episodes in sequence - because they're full of rowing goodness. 

So, here goes. The first one was literally recorded down a 'phone line and boy does it show ... 

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Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome to the very first Broken Oars Podcast - the podcast for rowers everywhere and anywhere who believe that rowing was better ten to twelve years ago - regardless of what year it is.

Launched by Dr. Aaron Jackson and Dr. Lewin Hynes as a way to bust lockdown 1.0, and to give somewhere for their endless chats about rowing to go, in our first episode Broken Oars introduce the hosts, discusses their technical and renal inadequacies; addresses the reality that Redgrave couldn't have been that good because he never won Runcorn Head in the rain; how auctioning off GB National Squad rowers to provincial clubs for a racing season would make everyone love the sport more; and why no tears should be shed for the passing of lightweightism.

(First released 20/07/2020)

So it begins ...

Please follow us on:

Youtube: www.youtube.com/@brokenoarspodcast

Please order: 

A copy of our first book, Charlotte Jackson and the Magic Blanket: https://tinyurl.com/53674jbu

Please visit: 

Our Website: www.thelandingstage.net

It's turned into a toxic place, but we're also on Twitter: 

www.twitter.com/brokenoarspodc1

The Northern One reads Ed Waugh's classic life of the north-eastern legend, Harry Clasper.

It's been a quiet year for Broken Oars Podcast in podcast terms. While life happened, we only managed to interview the world's best sports physiologist, the world's best sports psychologist, the man who created the on / off test for EPO and ...

SIR MATTHEW PINSENT!

And yet, it's the End of the Island that's been nominated for best rowing podcast - probably because we didn't get 'round to nominating ourselves. Go on Fergus! 

As we approach Christmas, we should understand that it can be a hard time of year for many (rowers). We get it. The summer regattas seem a long way away. The test regimen is currently brutal. The mileage is high. The weather and the water cold, and bow won't stop dragging their fxcking hands.

And in times like this it's always wise to remember the words of good St. Hodge.

And so with this in mind, the Northern One again reads The Night Before Christmas (for Rowers) - live from Kings.

Get some!

The Northern One releases an album of solo pieces perfect for meditating, journeying, breathwork, or just, you know ... listening to.

Track Listing

Charlotte the Brave and Larissa the Bold

Flatpicker / Sam Bacon’s Blues

Resolution

Cascade

A Deep Sea Diver’s Blues

Stumpy and The Bear (Will You Not Come Back?)

(©℗ A. I. Jackson 2024)

When I lived in Sheffield I got very interested in climbing, its artistry and ethics. A Test Piece is the title given to a climbing line that shows you where you are up to in your journey as a climber. Like a musical line, a climbing line is also an expression of the imagination and ability of the climber who first puts up the route. The lines in Test Pieces reflect my musical imagination and where I was in my life when they were written and recorded. Like a climb, each piece features a crux - this is usually the most difficult move, emotional moment, or technical challenge that connects the line. The album was recorded using climbing ethics: onsite, in one pass, with no rehearsal of moves ahead of time.

This made recording challenging, both the in situ parts and the final production where each piece is contextualised by moments of what was happening around the recording, and insights from people like Johnny Dawes on the links between creativity, performance and personality.

Released as the companion piece to Songs For Separation in November 2024, to find out more about Test Pieces writing, production and release go to Origin(al) Stories.

If you liked this album, tweet us, or bluesky us.

For more information, go to www.thelandingstage.net

After a week away in the North Yorkshire Dales recuperating, your favourite Northen One returns with part three of this autumn's deep dive into art, paintings and songs about poo.

In this episode, we'll talk and learn all about how William Frith's work spawned a craze for 'representative' scenes of modern life, why the term post-modernism is adolescently arsy, pictures as 'texts' to be read, and the commercial possibilities that occur when the 'vulgar mob' (F.W. Fairholt) sees itself positively expressed in your work - which is why critics don't know what they're talking about, Oasis sold more than Blur, and the sound of the sixties wasn't Dylan but Helen Shapiro and Englebert Humperdinck.

We touch on Victorian hypocrisy by noting that all ages are caught between their public faces and private actions, point out that all children are legitimate, mention Harry Clasper again, and come to the birth of the cities that still inform our view of Britain.

And Mancunian exhibitionism.

There's no exhibitionist like a Mancunian exhibitionist.

Look up Frith's The Railway Station (1862), Many Happy Returns of The Day (1856), and For Better, For Worse (1880), George Elgar Hicks' The General Post Office, One Minute To Six (1860), and William Logsdail's The Bank and the Royal Exchange (1887).

Take notes. 

And buy us a coffee.