McHenry County Blog

Archive for the ‘Greater Chicago Junior Championships’

What You See from the Main Beach When Rowers Compete

May 06, 2012 By: Cal Skinner Category: Chicago Greater Regional Rowing Championships, Chicago Junior Rowing Championship, Crystal Lake, Greater Chicago Junior Championships, Greater Chicago Junior Rowing Championships, Lincoln Park Juniors, Main Beach, Rowing, Rowing Regatta

Specks way out in the lake turn into people when if you watched the Greater Chicago Juniors Rowing Championships at the Crystal Lake Park District’s Main Beach yesterday.

Before I show you a series of photos of a beach view look at the Women’s Varsity 8 Race, let me observe that this type of even cries for a hot air balloon anchored over the lake with a camera whose views are broadcast to a big screen on the Main Beach.

Now, that would be exciting.

Combine it with cameras from Gate 21, 13, 7 and 3 and it would be really worth watching. Any photo may be enlarged by clicking on it.

The race is probably passing Gate 21 here.

The skiffs don't get large quickly.

Could specators tell who was ahead from the beach?

Getting closer, but still too far for identification for most people.

Closer they come. Are they at Gate 13 yet?

The spots are getting bigger.

Halfway home?

A bird entered the picture here.

Those viewing the race could identifiy where their friends were by now.

Swallows were eating lunch in the foreground.

Later photos show there were more than three entrants, but that's all that can be seen here.

There was loud cheering next to me when I took this picture.

And the leaders approach the finish line.

The rowers are coming into focus.

Estimate the speed from the wake of the chase boat.

Which team will win?

Looks as if the race is over. The oars of the skiff on the left are being feathered.

At the left side of the image one can see another skiff coming into view.

A wider view shows there was still another boat (seen at the right) in the race.

I discovered that the winners of the Women’s 8 Varsity race was the Lincoln Park Juniors.

The Lincoln Park Juniors won the Women's 8 Varsity race.

Here's a better view of the first two rowers on the Lincoln Park Juniors team.

Spots three and four of the Lincoln Park Juniors Varsity 8 are highlighted here.

The camera focused on spots five and six of the Lincoln Park Juniors Varsity 8 Women's team in this photo.

The seventh and eighth members of the Lincoln Park Juniors Women's Varsity 8 can be seen here.

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Rowing Regatta on Crystal Lake Saturday

May 03, 2011 By: Cal Skinner Category: Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Main Beach, Crystal Lake Rowing Club, Greater Chicago Junior Championships

This photo is from a 2009 heat toward the West End of Crystal Lake. It was a windy day.

The annual Greater Chicago Junior Rowing Championships will be held on Crystal Lake Saturday. If you haven’t seen such a regatta, it might be worth your time.

If it was a windy day as in 2009, taking the skiff out of the water can get one wet, as you can see below.

A dozen teams are expected this year. One would expect that New Trier, Woodlands Academy, North Suburban, the Lincoln Park Juniors and St. Ignatius would come again.

During the race, this crew's skiff took on a good deal of water.

One year, crews from Upper Arlington, Ohio, north of Columbus, competed, so this is truly a regional event. In 2009, West Park, Canada, participated, as did St. Louis. There was also a Mendota crew from Madison, Wisconsin.

In 2009, this banner announced the event.

The event is sponsored by the Crystal Lake Rowing Club.

The 2009 race course.

Most of the folks who come with the teams watch the races from the Main Beach., but there are places to watch more than the end of the race from the south shore.

Family and friends lined Crystal Lake Main Beach shoreline for the 2009 regatta.

The best spot to watch the action, in my opinion, is Gate 3′s beach.

Two houses to the west of Main Beach is CCAPOA's Gate 3 beach. The willow tree in the background is on its edge.

While only those with Country Club Additions Property Owners Association car stickers can utilize the small number of parking spaces, the beach is a short walk from the Main Beach. It can be reached from the first street in Lakewood (look for the Gate 3 sign), which is just to the west of the Beach.

Here's a view of a close four-way race from Gate 3.

There are three other CCAPOA beaches, also with permit parking only, along South Shore Drive. Each are within walking distance of the Main Beach, since Crystal Lake is only a bit over a mile long.

Watching people get ready for the races is an event in itself.

Not that there are not things to see at the Main Beach.

Launching the skiffs takes real skill, especially if it is a windy day.

Especially for those who have never watched such races.

This is the view from Gate 21, the fartherest south shore beach from Main Beach, from which race starts can be seen.

There is a Regatta Playground, one of two Leathers playgrounds in Crystal Lake, to occupy the younger siblings.

Appropriate for a rowing regatta is the Crystal Lake Park District's Regatta Playgound. Besides being a place for kids to play, it offers a high view of races.

And, there is always the beach on which kids can play.

Crystal Lake will be too cold to swim in, but brave young ones have been known to dash in and out the water.

Participating this Saturday will be

Camp Randall RC (Madison WI)
Chicago Training Center (also include UNO charter school)
Crystal Lake Rowing Club
Ignatius Chicago
Lincoln Park Juniors
Loyola Academy
New Trier HS
North Suburban Crew (Woodlands Academy)
Rochester RC (MN)

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Message of the Day – A License Plate

May 05, 2009 By: Cal Skinner Category: Cal Skinner Sr, Crystal Lake, Crystal Lake Main Beach, Crystal Lake Rowing Club, Eleanor Skinner, Greater Chicago Junior Championships, License Place, Rowing Regatta

One of the things I accomplished while separated from the internet was scheduling our vacation.

This year, with my son being the age I was when we moved to Salt Lake City from Easton, Maryland, I thought it might be appropriate to show him things I saw while I was his age.

It’s been fifty years since my sisters and I were taken to South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore. I remember eating buffalo meat at a restaurant overlooking the presidential busts and that the meat was chewy. I liked it. Since then, there’s a light show we’ll have to take in.

And, Wyoming’s Yellowstone. I still remember my mother’s saying she wondered if my father would have a heart attack while he was frantically searching for me after I wondered off from the family. He figured I’d end up in some boiling water.

A woman I met at Home Depot after my computer died was wearing a Yellowstone sweat shirt, so I asked her for advice. She told me she and a cousin were the only ones at Old Faithful on the June 20th the year they visited who were wearing winter coats. That was appropriate because it was snowing.

So, it was thoughts like that which entered my head as I took a picture of this out of place Wyoming license plate at Crystal Lake’s Main Beach parking lot.