INTERNATIONAL ROWING TURNS PROFESSIONAL catch them up, and mostly beat them, and a lot of times building to 43 or 44 in the last half-mile to the dock. “Stan Pocock was the Lake Washington sweep coach, and George Pocock was my sculling coach. “I can remember George coming up to me on the water and saying [imitating a British accent], ‘Mr. Nash, if you bend your arms that early, you’re going to wear out on the way home. If you keep your arms straight on the way up, you’ll be much fresher on the way down,’ and then he drove away, and that’s all he said to me that day. “The next day, he said, ‘Mr. Nash, you didn’t hear me yesterday. You’re bending your arms, still.’ And he was so pleasant saying it, how could I not try harder? “Twelve miles of pain to Juanita Beach and back . . . “One day I did it right, and I won going Rowing from Union Bay (top, left-center, above Rt. 520) around Mercer Island (lower right) and back was 21 miles 34km! their own boat the next day. This was Stan’s stuff3587 that we had done forever and ever. We all loved it, and Stan made it fun! “We’d row in our straight-four against Washington’s eight around Mercer Island all the time. “Once we rowed around the entire lake, a thirty-eight mile row against them, but most of the time it was twenty-one mile Mercer Island races on Saturdays, and they’d give us about a five to ten second lead, and they’d usually catch us by Renton [south end of Lake Washington] because they could turn tighter around Mercer Island with a coxswain, but I think we’d always 3587 In his first year as freshman coach at the UW, Stan “introduced the first ham’n’egger – randomly drawn boatings, and weekly intrasquad races,” www.huskycrew.com away. ‘Well, Mr. Nash, you’ve finally decided to keep your arms straight.’ “I don’t know if I did or not, but he said it in such a way that I felt great . . . and I still remember it. “He did more than anybody to help my confidence in my single because I started out losing by 30 seconds to Findlay and Ferry in their pair-with,3588 and in six months George had me as fast as they were some of the time. “The club had this wonderful father-son thing with George and Stan. We also had Rusty Callow3589 [who had retired to Seattle] as a mentor. We had Al Ulbrickson, Sr.3590 as a mentor. Ulbrickson would come by in his launch almost every morning and spend some time watching us, never saying a word, but one day in 1959 we 3588 See Chapter 82. 3589 See Chapter 64. 3590 See Chapters 59 and 89. By this time, Al Ulbrickson, Jr. had rowed for his father at the UW. 985
