On the water, rowers can’t think about much else. Rhythm and teamwork take concentration. Or as Shari Lowen puts it, when you’re in the boat, you’re in the boat.
This works for Lowen and her fellow ROWsist members. Lowen founded ROWsist rowing group within the River City Rowing Club in 2023 for cancer survivors like herself.
She wanted to “give people who’ve been through cancer an opportunity to use their bodies and minds” along with “the community and emotional aspect of doing something together.”
Lowen was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2021. Never a smoker, she was confounded by the news, especially when cancer was discovered during tests on her heart, not lungs. But she sees it as “one of those lucky things.”
She was lucky. Caught early and operable, the cancer required no follow-up treatment.
But surgery knocked Lowen back in her fitness journey. A confirmed “couch potato” in high school and college, she eventually discovered distance running and marathons. When sidelined by injury, she looked for new ways to stay active.
Then she saw an ad for River City Rowing Club. After her first day on the water in 2011, she was hooked.
Lowen does sweep rowing (with one oar) and sculling (two oars). ROWsist members often do sweep rowing in four- and eight-person boats with a coxswain—a captain who steers and directs from the stern, facing forward.
Lowen needed months to rebuild endurance and strength to “almost” pre-diagnosis levels. She started with short walks in her Woodlake neighborhood, then longer walks, then short jaunts on an indoor rowing machine and finally longer sessions on the water with the rowing club in West Sacramento.
As she worked back into peak form, she wanted to give fellow survivors a taste of the focus and freedom she felt on the water. She founded ROWsist with just a few members. It’s grown to 14.
“The No. 1 reason people enjoy it is community and the sense of accomplishment, doing something you never even considered doing, and here you are out there rowing and enjoying time on the water,” she says.
New members sign up at the start of each month and must pass a swim test or wear a floatation device and get medical clearance.
Coaches take time to get new members up to speed and make accommodations for physical needs or limitations.
While members pay monthly dues to cover coaching, equipment and “keeping the lights on in the boathouse,” Lowen is determined to dispel the idea that rowing is elitist. She offers scholarships for people who can’t afford the fees.
She wants to give fellow cancer survivors a place to forget their cares, concentrate on nature’s beauty and spend time with new friends.
“Some people may hesitate because of the early hours, but so many of us say we now love to get up at O-dark-hundred to enjoy being on the water and the sunrise and being part of the community,” Lowen says.
For information, visit rivercityrowing.org/rowsist or email rowsist@rivercityrowing.org.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
