"Of course I had a lot of catching up to do, because other freshmen had been rowing for a long time and already had their technique down. I've worked at getting my technique down, although I wouldn't say I'm caught up yet. Coach Washburn was really good. He takes everything slowly, so that you gradually get into crew."
"The workout itself is only an hour long, like they claim," freshman novice Matt Lenoci says. "I end up spending more time than that, but only because it takes a while to walk to the boathouse and back. But any extra time I spend at the boathouse is voluntary."
Well, most of the time, at least.
"We do occasionally have a longer workout or a weekend event," Lenoci adds. "But those are so few and far between that they're not a problem."
Both Lenoci and Wayne were attracted to crew in part by the letter. But their reasons for actually going down to the boathouse differed.
Lenoci was attracted "primarily by the success of the people who hadn't rowed before, and by the small time commitment," he says Wayne decided to row "to meet people, and just to try something new."
Crew is something new for Wayne, but not for Harvard, which has been rowing--and rowing better than anyone else for over 130 years.