THE ERA OF POLARIZATION saw me training, and he asked me to come row for him. “‘I’d love to, but my grades are (I was smart enough. I just atrocious.’ hadn’t applied myself in school.) “Bob said, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll get you in on an athletic deferment.’ “Once I got there, I was fine. “Ernst was a student of rowing, never much of a rower himself, but he studied it, and my hat’s off to him because a lot of coaches never do. They just go on gut instinct, and that will get you just so far. To make the really big improvements, you’ve got to have some theoretical background.”7194 The University of California at Irvine had a wonderful Varsity in 1974. Brad ended up in the Jayvee, but Ernst had trained everyone in singles, doubles and pairs. Brad continued to scull on the side in Duvall Hecht’s single. Lewis: “Duvall gave me a steady stream of low-key advice that I greatly needed.”7195 Brad quit crew his senior year, but witnessing in person the battle between Kolbe and Karppinen at the 1976 Olympics in Montréal7196 had a life-changing impact on him. Lewis: “Within a few days, I had acquired a racing shell, and before a year had passed, this obscure antiquated sport had become my passion.”7197 Lewis first made the U.S. Team in 1977, stroking the quad with Ted Van Dusen,7198 7194 Lewis, personal conversation, 2009 7195 Lewis, Assault, p. 10 7196 See Chapter 125. 7197 Lewis, op. cit., p. 4 7198 the builder of the U.S. sliding-rigger single in 1982 and 1983. John Bannen and Casey Baker. They came in ninth. After an injury in 1978, Brad dedicated himself to the single in 1979, competing in Europe and studying the GDR version of Classical Technique. Lewis: “I found my way to Zurich, and Melch Bürgin7199 and I hit it off. I trained at the club there and went with them to regattas.”7200 After a stint in the 1980 Olympic Quad with Chris Allsopp, Tiff and Tom Howes, Brad would next appear on a U.S. Team roster in the 1983 National Sculling Camp Double with Paul Enquist. They had both failed to make Coach Harry Parker’s priority boat, the quad. strong, but you could feel the boat jerk through the power application.7201 Altekruse: “Brad was incredibly It just didn’t work, and that’s why nobody could row with him.”7202 Lewis: “At some point in the camp in ‘83, Paul Enquist and I were put in a double. We had immediate success, enough that Coach Parker kept us together. “We had some epic workouts. I remember early on the guys who had been in the Canadian Double in ‘82 came down to do a workout with us, like a couple of 2,000 meter pieces. We were a half a boat down with 300 meters to go in one of the pieces, and Enquist and I just ground out a monster sprint and caught up. I looked over, and Harry Parker’s jaw just dropped. He couldn’t believe it! 7199 See Chapter 87. 7200 Lewis, personal conversation, 2009 7201 It may have been that Brad’s sculler-oriented Schubschlag conflicting with the Harvard/Yale sweep-oriented Kernschlag. 7202 Altekruse, personal conversation, 2009 2011
