WASILLA - Wearing chest waders and a baseball hat, Kern McGinley stood Saturday morning under a white canopy to keep dry.
Though the rain may have dampened some spirits in the Valley, McGinley’s wasn’t one of them. When it’s raining, winds are usually subdued, which is better for his rowers.
The park where he stood next to Wasilla Lake was filled with rows of slender white boats and colorfully painted oars. More than 100 people, from teenagers to 70-year-olds, from Seward, Soldotna and Anchorage, were competing.
McGinley said he has nine years of coaching experience and five in Alaska. This is his first year coaching the Anchorage Rowing Association, the club that organized the Moose Nugget Regatta that brought him to Wasilla.
Organizer Marietta Hall, one of the founding members of the association, said the regatta is in its seventh year. Despite its Anchorage origins, it’s always been a Valley event.
“You just have much better lakes out here,” Hall said.
Hall said rowers have long wished to start up a Valley club but have lacked enough people. Valley rowers, she said, practice with them on Anchorage’s Sand Lake.
Past events have been at Lake Lucille, but Hall said the regatta will likely return to Wasilla Lake. The park wedged between the lake and the Parks Highway is easy to find and very visible.
“People can just drive by and go, 'I never knew there was rowing in Alaska,’” which is good advertising for the sport, Hall said.
And, she said, next year should go more smoothly. She’ll be sure to let the police know that the boats will have to be left overnight in the parking lot so they won’t show up to investigate like they did Friday evening. And to avoid freaking out as she said she did briefly Saturday, she will make sure no other events are scheduled on the lake like the Alaska WaterX Races for personal watercraft - Jet Skis - at the Mat-Su Resort.
“They’ve been wonderful about it,” she said, of the resort, which offered to start its races later than planned to avoid sending wakes toward the rowers.
Hall has been rowing since college. She had to sit this year out, she said, gesturing toward her visibly pregnant stomach.
“I’m due in three weeks, so I won’t be rowing today,” she said. But that’s OK - there’s plenty of work for her onshore, she said.
On the other end of the park her brother, Kevin Hall, stood next to a tree, fresh off a race.
His boat had come through even though one of the rowers lost an oar in the water.
Kevin Hall took it in stride - that’s just part of the sport.
He said he likes rowing because it’s easy on his knee, which he injured running.
He’s rowed in Boston at the Head of the Charles Regatta and is training to compete in the Canadian Nationals.
Marilyn Conaway, 72, said she started rowing when she retired and has been doing it for 10 years, joining the Anchorage group when it started in 1998.
She had to sit out this year’s trip to Boston; health problems landed her in the emergency room.
Saturday was her first competition since recovering, and she was in three events.
“I like the cooperation and the camaraderie,” Conaway said. “It’s really a very helpful group.”
On the other end of the age spectrum, Trevor Clayton, 14, said he and his father joined the group just this spring.
They live close to Sand Lake and often saw the group practicing and had meant for a couple of years to sign up.
“It’s really, really cool,” Clayton said. “I hope maybe I can do something with it in college.”
Find reporter Andrew Wellner online at adn.com/contact/awellner or call him at 352-6710.
