Photo Courtesy of Rowbics

Local Rowing Part One of Three: The Business

Story by J.J. Fiddler

Victoria Draper was having one of those days.

“Something was out of balance,” says Draper.  “Nothing felt quite right, but it never occurred to me that it was the rowing that was missing.”

After graduating from the University of California, Davis in 2000, the Oakland-native returned home to work at Smith Barney.  At Davis, Draper- a former swimmer- had been turned onto rowing by her roommate. 

“I was addicted right away.  Rowing attracts a certain type of person. Passionate. A perfectionist.  A little OCD because it’s just perfecting one stroke.  I had that need to perfect it. When you get that one perfect stroke that feels so good, its like, oh I need to do that again.”

Draper’s college mornings were spent on the water dodging barges in the Port of Sacramento.  During the day she studied Communications at Davis, and at night she attended the Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy.  When she graduated and returned to Oakland, rowing was left behind.

And that brought with it “one of those days” at an office job she wasn’t passionate about.  Draper’s direct supervisor, Janet Alexander, noticed Draper’s sour look.  “It started as a venting session, and then she asked me ‘what ever happened to rowing?’”

Alexander, who was involved with the local Lake Merritt Rowing Club, gave Draper her rowing jacket and insisted she get back on the water.

“That was it.  Rowing was what had me excited to wake up in the morning.”

Draper started racing again in 2003, and to her surprise, she started beating people.  “My coaches were telling my that I had a shot to take it to the next level… and that’s when I moved to Long Beach.”

All Draper knew about Long Beach was it had a history of aquatic success.  That, and if things didn’t work out, it was still a pretty nice place to live.  But even though Alexander got her job transferred, “I was happy when I was rowing.  I wasn’t when I wasn’t.”

So, she did what most people couldn’t.  She left her job “cold turkey” and took to the single skull.  But still, there was something missing.  “When I was on a team… there is this phenomenal energy in that one stroke with seven other people.  When I was training full time, it was a lot of alone time.”

That’s when Olympian and Long Beach Rowing Association member John Nunn stepped in.  Rather, Draper stepped in, “they were talking in the boat house and I overheard them talking about teaching classes on the rowing machines.  I jumped at the opportunity.  Rowing is already the total body workout.  You push with your legs, open up with the back, use your core, and then pull in with your arms.  I wanted to open the doors to the general public, make it a fun workout, and not so monotonous.”

And that’s how SitFit started.  Draper printed out the flyers about her high energy workouts, taught the classes, and basically ran the one-woman show.  However, she wasn’t getting many non-rowers who were willing to do more than sit there, waiting to get fit.  All business has ups and downs, and SitFit had a down that was too much for Draper’s checkbook to bare.  She took a job at an investment firm in Century City, where little did she know, the answer was waiting, and his name was George.

“You get to know the clients, and this guy George was really friendly.  He was older, and he was interested in what I was doing with rowing.  But he used to say ‘SitFit is a horrible name.  I don’t have anything else, but SitFit has to go.’  Then he called me one day and told me he had been at this aerobics class with his wife when it just hit him.  Rowbics.”
 
It was the perfect seven-letter word that embodied exactly what Draper wanted to do, and in true crew fashion, she wanted to do it all immediately.  She went out and bought the domain name, the personalized license plate, and 888-Rowbics.  “It just took off.  We had so many people coming to the boathouse that we were turning people away.  I never thought I’d be so lucky to actually have a business in rowing.”

But that’s exactly what Draper had, and she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her how to run her Rowbics.  “Rowing is such a traditional sport that no ones ever felt comfortable trying something different with it.  I was asking for feedback, and rowers were telling me all the reasons why it wouldn’t work…You have to not even see the box.  You just have to keep asking what else can I do?  What else can I do?”

Want to find out what else Draper & Rowbics did?
Come back to LBPostSports.com next week to read the second part of our three-part story about Rowbics and the Beach Sprints sponsored by the Long Beach Rowing Association.

Disclosure: Rowbics is an advertiser on LBPost.com

Tags: general crew

bill b said:

Do they come with an ash tray and cup holder for my adult beverage? Just kidding, I remember when rowing machines were hot in the late 80's and early 90's. It is truly a complete workout. Can't wait to see one

K said:

This sounds amazing - I checked out the website and the flyer that was posted - all the info there except cost! I would love to try ROWBICS!

peter said:

I recently took up sea kayaking and naturally i am intrigued by this article. Paddling a yak out in the open sea is for me the ultimate workout. I see rowers out there all the time in Long beach and Newport beach harbors and I share their passion for doing cardiovascular workouts out on the water, with the sun and water splashing on you. I will paddle out in the LB harbor or the beach in a sunny day even in winter stripped down to just swimming shorts and my PFD, and paddle to a beach strand and do beach calisthenics. Or jump in the water and swim/surf. I have almost combined yakking, beach calisthenics, and body surfing into one master exercise routine, a sort of beach workout/ triathlon.

joe said:

i agree completely with what you said about rowers having a touch of ocd about them!