A quad is a 4-person boat in which the rowers scull, meaning that you row with two oars. Stroking the boat means I was the stroke seat (sitting in the stern of the boat) and set the pace for the rest of the boat. I was stroke seat in college too, but we rowed sweep then, meaning we used one longer oar. I also started having asthma attacks every time I stroked. One of the attacks was bad enough to send me to the hospital. But I'm happy to report that I did not have an asthma attack last night. Yay!
When I rowed in college, we weren't allowed to use gloves. It was supposedly a safety concern. I guess the oar could have slipped out of our hands, resulting in the oar smacking us in the face and possibly flipping us out of the boat (worst case scenario). My current crew team falls under the masters category, since we're not rowing with a school. My team could care less if we wear gloves. In fact, a large number of us do. I use a pair of little boy-sized football gloves because they're grippy.
Anyways, I don't like to scull with gloves because the Velcro strap on the left glove tends to scrape against my right wrist and it feels like it's going to get pulled open. So last night, for the first time since rejoining crew, I rowed without gloves. The result? 11 new blisters on my hands. Two of the blisters ripped open on my left hand, and somehow I got blisters underneath those. Impressive, huh? I also have lots of little scrapes on the first two knuckles of my left hand from the fingernails of my right hand scratching against them while rowing. The things we do to ourselves for sports...
After getting home, I poured some hydrogen peroxide on the open blisters to clean them out. Can you say "pain"? And my post-workout shower... Well, hot water HURTS! Despite all of this pain, I'm still kind of excited to have blisters again. It means that I was trying hard, and it's kind of like a sense of pride. Rowers, like cross-fitters, like to compare blisters. We like seeing how bad it can get. We're a weird group of people, huh?
During my novice year of rowing (sophomore year of college), I roomed with a gymnast/cheerleader. We used to talk about and compare blisters. She told me that she used to use pickle juice to dry out the blisters she got from gymnastics. It just so happened that I had an almost empty jar of pickles in the fridge, so after a weekend regatta, I decided to give it a try... I don't recommend it. Mainly it just burned, and my hands smelled like pickles for the next few days. And "pickle" isn't a great perfume choice.
A blister is a pocket of fluid that forms within the upper layers of skin. In my case with crew, the blister is formed by forceful rubbing/friction between my sweaty hands and the oar. See my post about blood blisters for how to treat blisters at home (it's basically the same). Also, don't use alcohol on the blisters because this can delay the healing process.
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