“So I was just having a nice swim then these boats came straight at me!” – The Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race

Probably the most interesting Boat Race we have seen in decades and sort of an anticlimax at that!

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For all those that don’t know about the Boat Race: “April 7th 2012 sees the 158th Boat Race between crews from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. First raced in 1829 The Boat Race is one of the oldest sporting events in the world.” [http://www.theboatrace.org/about-the-race]

And when two of the best universities in the world are racing, we love to watch. Rowing in itself is mostly a boring sport to watch, but today it was worth it.

THE RACE

At 14:15 today the race started and Oxford took the lead, but only by a margin. The crews were rowing closely side-by-side, which put the Umpire a bit at unease. This way crashing is very likely and he’d rather have 4-5m between the two boats. At 14:22 both crews were level and by 14:26 Oxford only led by a few feel and suddenly… Cambridge just stops rowing!

THE SWIMMER

What an Idiot:

If you study the footage you can just see it: a head bobbing up and down in the waves just missing the blades from the crews. What kind of idiot is he? Not sure, really. People are wondering who is is and whether he was protesting something. According to the Daily Mail his name is Trenton Oldfield, an activist who claimed the incident was a deliberate ‘act of civil disobedience’. I think nobody really knows what the fool is on about. A post appeared online suggesting he was protesting “elitism”, but honestly I don’t care what he was trying to show. He is now in police custody and maybe we’ll hear more from him.

Either way, I think he is a fool. Swimming in that river is a stupid idea at best – considering that children have been hospitalized after swallowing a mouthful of water. And then… swimming in the middle of this race? He could have died!

And on top of that he ruined the race for those participating… because – while it makes it more exciting for us – these men have worked hard for this day and don’t deserve this.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126492/Boat-Race-2012-Trenton-Oldfield-Thames-swimmer-caused-event-stop.html#ixzz1rN22ZjO5

Check this out for a brief impression of the idiot in the water:

And the BBC coverage of the incident!

THE RESTART
Both crews went back to the half-way point and the race restarted. Oxford leads by a few feet at the beginning but then the crews clash blades. This is not unusual if the crews are close together, but here we are talking about a fast race and the men in the boats have serious strength. The end of it: The blade of Hanno Wienhausen (No 6 in the Oxford Boat) snaps and brakes off and Oxford has to row with 7 men.

Since there were many warnings to both boats and many to Oxford to not row this close, the umpire isn’t sympathetic and rules that this is Oxford’s fault. Rowing with 7 is not impossible – just damn annoying. First of all your balance is off and you have to adjust for that (Wienhausen kept rowing with his broken-off blade — probably to help with that and keep the motion of the boat fluid). But most of all: one less in the boat is one less pushing and you could basically feel Oxford slowing down within seconds – the immediate confusion didn’t help.

Unsurprisingly less then a minute after this Cambridge already leads by 1.5 boat lengths and wins the race 3 lengths ahead of Oxford. However, Zoe De Toledo (Oxford’s Cox) never let her men give up and Oxford fought hard till the end – even if they were unlucky in more than one way today.

CAMBRIDGE HAVE WON THE 2012 XCHANGING BOAT RACE

After the race finished, Woods (Oxford’s man at bow) lay down in the bow (which is probably the only place in the boat you can stretch out – which is why I like it so much). That is not unusual, since these men have just given all they got, but apparently Woods has collapsed and has been lifted out of the boat and is currently receiving medical attention.

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So now… the Boat Race is over and everyone is left with the feeling it is slightly unfinished. Oxford is left with one unfortunate incident after the next even though they fought hard and Cambridge with that hollow feel that they didn’t quite win as glamorously as they could have. As far as I am concerned: This is a race worth talking about, both crews did amazingly and the verdict stands. Zoe was amply warned and crashing is always a risk. She went for it and it didn’t work.

CONGRATULATIONS TO BOTH CREWS and from us to Alex Woods: Get well soon! You fought amazingly!

Cambridge 81 : Oxford 76

Images taken from: http://www.london-attractions.info/images/attractions/the-boat-race.jpg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126492/Boat-Race-2012-Trenton-Oldfield-Thames-swimmer-caused-event-stop.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Blonde Sports – Roller Derby

 

“There ain’t nothing so sweet
As a girl on skates
Whoopin’ other girls asses all night”

(Uncle Leon and the Alibis – Roller Derby saved my soul)

True words sung by a wise man. And this is how I start my post to introduce you to the hottest new sport: Roller Derby!

If you live in the USA you might have heard of it. Perhaps even in the UK, but here in Germany it’s mostly unknown. I joined the team in Hamburg last year and as I found it hot and awesome from the beginning I thought it might be worth an entry in our Blonde Sports-Section.

Actually the sport is not new for it appeared first in 1935 in the USA. It had different rules: 25 teams consisting of a man and a woman skated 57.000 rounds on an  oval track. The last team that stood on the track in the end won the game. As you can imagine those players got hurt and exhausted after some time so most of them quit the sport and the first try of establishing Roller Derby failed.

The next time Roller Derby got prominent was in the 1940’s, when Leo A. Seltzer and Damon Runyon adapted the rules and made it more attractive to the audience by focusing on hustling and barging. This was a great success and for the next forty years it became a crowd puller in the USA. Finally in the 70’s it collapsed again because of too many leagues and organizations, as well as the high traveling expenses due to the oil crisis.

The last and latest revival started in 1999 in Texas, USA as a party gag – and became an unbelievable success. In the WFTDA (Women Flat Track Derby Association) are over 14.000 players by now, mostly women, as men only are allowed as referees (in the USA and UK there are afew male teams, but we ladies rule the game – hell yeah!).

Some Pics with great music:

Enough about history: Here come the rules:

Two teams, consisting of four Blockers and a Jammer compete with each other. The Blockers build a pack, skating on an oval track. The Jammers collect points by lapping the pack. And that’s where the real fun begins: Blockers are, as the name implies, allowed to block the Jammers and each other of the track and to the ground. Of course there are some rules to keep it kind of civilized, but broken noses, bruises and black eyes are unavoidable.

But it’s not just the game that’s fun. Every competition (Bout) is an event. You get food and drinks, Rock’n Roll music and lots of crazy folk watching the game. And in addition to that Roller Girls are hot. Wearing tights, hot pants, mini skirts, tattoos, piercings and raggedy and having names like Boxkick Betty, Chaos Kitty or Pippi Hardknocking they are frightening and amazing to look at.

To all of those who are interested now: There is a great movie directed by Drew Barrymore about Roller Derby: “Whip it!” Ellen Page plays the seventeen years old Bliss whose mother  drags her to beauty pageants and wants her to be the perfect little lady. One day she and her best friend watch a Roller Derby and she gets kind of infected: She joins the Hurl Scouts and becomes Babe Ruthless, one of the fastest Jammers of their league. Of course this is not everything, there are also ups and downs and the typical first-love-stuff (but not the Hollywood-Clichée, it’s kinda realistic), but mostly it’s about this girl growing up, getting balls and finally speaking up against the world and all those people who piss her off. And did I mention? It’s all about Roller Derby! It’s a great film and every girl should watch it (even those who are not interested in Roller Derby, which is nearly impossible as I think).

Bliss jamming against Iron Maven (Juliette Lewis, I absolutely love her!)

Oh, and to show you how much fun watching Roller Derby can be, here’s a pic taken at the last bout in Hamburg: Hamburg Harbor Girls against Amsterdam Derby Dames (Hamburg won – yeah!):

When you see it...

Okay ladies, that’s enough for today. Now I want you to grab your skates (or buy some, if you don’t have any), join the nearest Roller Derby Team and become part of this new awesome, sexy, tough sport!

Ahoi! Oi! Oi! (Harbor Girls Slogan)

Scramble up the mountains, stroll by the ocean…

Hiking

It might sound boring and like an old people’s thing to do, but since I live in Maine, USA I am really into hiking and Acadia National Park is so inviting. Whether you do it alone, with your best friend or in a group, fast and strenuous or whether it is more like a challenging walk in the woods, hiking brings you closer to nature and lets you enjoy the beauty of this world. And you should really consider exploring your environment. It is a healthy workout, you get to know your home or a distant place and you see amazing sights and fascinating details.

If you live in the USA a good website to start a search for opportunities around you is: http://www.trails.com/

One of my personal favourites so far is Acadia Mountain in Acadia National Park in Maine. I hiked this mountain and its neighbour with a friend in the pouring rain. It was one of the most challenging hikes I ever did (which doesn’t say much though) and it made me hungry for more.

Trails.com tells us this about the trail:

One of Acadia’s more popular trails west of Somes Sound, the Acadia Mountain Trail is a tough scramble up to spectacular views of Somes Sound, the ocean, and surrounding mountains. But as strenuous as it is, you may see families with small children making the trek. Highlights: Views of Somes Sound, Echo Lake, Gulf of Maine, Cranberry Isles, and surrounding mountains.

It gives you additional statistics, tour guides, topo maps and helpful hints and tips.

Go, go and hike!

Love yourself #2

DO  SPORTS

Exercising has the same effect on you as drugs, your body distributes endorphins and you feel great. Some sports even improve your self-esteem. They’re great to find new friends and learn new things. Perhaps you even find something you can do very well, discover a talent of yours which you want to practice your whole life.

Just find the right sport.

You like teamwork? Try soccer, football, handball, volleyball…

You like to work alone? What about Martial Arts, tennis, badminton…

Love being outdoors? Try jogging, mountain biking, or extreme sports like free climbing, bungee jumping…

If you love being in or on the water there’s diving, surfing, sailing…

You see there are enough kinds of sport and everyone should find the right thing.

Tipp: Mia wrote an article about Pole Dancing (#mce_temp_url#), perhaps that’s interesting for you (^_^v)

Pole Dancing in Cambridge

Cambridge is one of the most renowned universities of the world and its oldest society – the Cambridge Union Society – has announced fun news. The debating society announced that it would offer pole dancing tuition to members, in a building that has had guests like Winston Churchill speaking.

Lessons would be given in the Blue Room at the union’s building, which is more commonly used for debates, said the society.

A Cambridge Union spokeswoman defended the move, saying there was “nothing degrading” about it.

“We are of the opinion that classes like these are a way of empowering women, as well as being a fantastic way to exercise and have fun together with other women,” she said.

“If an intelligent, independent woman wishes to learn a particular form of dance in respectable surroundings, we see nothing degrading in that.”

– Now this is unusual, but kinda fun. Personally, I’d just like to see who is going to be outraged by that. Probably people who don’t know a lot about pole dancing as a sport, but got to know it in a different context.

I find it fun and just maybe I should consider taking the lessons. ^^

Pole dancing as a sport is not about women rubbing on poles, but is seriously acrobatic and really exhausting if done right. I’d like to see someone do this and then say that it’s not sport:

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source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100412/wl_uk_afp/britaindanceuniversityoffbeat