West End
Rowing Club
Rowing Club
Four ways in, one club. Pick the door that fits — you can always move between them. Not sure? Come to a Give it a Row Sunday and decide with wet hands.
Five Sunday mornings at Saunders Reserve, Avondale. You'll learn the stroke on land, then get on the water fast — boat handling, balance, timing, and how not to catch the infamous "crab". All equipment provided. You need to swim 50 m and manage moderate exercise; that's it.
By week five you'll know whether rowing is your sport. Most people already know by week two.
The bridge from "I like this" to your first race season. The novice course covers everything Give it a Row does, faster and deeper — then rolls into the summer novice squad racing at regattas across the North Island. This is the exact path Mahé Drysdale took: he walked into West End as a university novice and walked out an Olympic legend. No pressure.
Train under head coach Sam Jackson, a world-champion coach, with a squad that wins national medals and feeds NZ age-group crews. The season runs September to NZ Nationals in late February, with a training camp after New Year and, for crews that earn it, the chance of overseas campaigns — Henley Royal, Royal Canadian Henley, Head of the Charles. We believe in balance: work, uni and training can coexist here. You don't have to move cities to row seriously.
Some clubs stop taking new rowers at 30. We never stop.
Rowed at school twenty years ago? Never rowed but your kids do? Masters at West End takes you either way. Train mornings that fit around real life, race as much or as little as you like — from social rows to NZ Masters Championships.
Rowing parents: you drop them at training anyway. Stay, and learn why they love it.
West End is the proud home of rowing for Baradene College, Mount Albert Grammar and St Peter's College. If your school doesn't offer rowing, talk to us — unlike some Auckland clubs, we don't turn young rowers away. Everyone starts somewhere; plenty of Olympians started here.
Talk to us about junior rowingThe club has such a strong team culture — I felt it as soon as I joined.
