Robert Gordon, Inverness Rowing Club's club president
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00:00The idea is to promote rowing, both indoor on rowing machines and then to bring people
00:08down onto the canal and have some fun in the new boats that we've managed to acquire.
00:13Ten new training boats, which are ideal for early stage participation.
00:18Initially we'll focus on the Inverness schools, but we've already been out to Dingwall, Fortrose
00:22and Nairn Academy, matching really where our current membership lies.
00:26We're not just an Inverness-based club, we're a Highland-based club.
00:29There are areas of high deprivation within the Inverness area, which impacts some of
00:33the local schools here, and that's who we want to try and encourage.
00:37Rowing's got a perception of being an elitist sport, it's very much not that case.
00:41The Henley Stewards charity have given us money in order to employ someone and reach
00:46out to the schools, so it is about trying to give something back.
00:49Before Covid we had probably about 65 active members, we've grown that now to about 139.
00:55We've got some juniors who are going to be performing hopefully for Scotland Select teams.
01:00We've had Olympians, world champions, we've got our current coach who's a world champion
01:04in coastal sculling.
01:05There are opportunities for people who want to try and excel at this sport.
01:08If we can create talent, that is great, but if we can broaden our base and get people
01:13on the water having fun, equally we get as much enjoyment from seeing that as we see
01:19people picking up medals at competitions.