I ran into Marsha via twitter — it seems Marsha rows in her Classic Vibram FiveFingers. As I hadn’t yet had any submissions from rowers, I asked Marsha to share a bit about her experiences with VFFs rowing and here is what she had to say:
[I got my fivefingers because] I wanted something I could walk on the dock and boatyard with when lifting and carrying boats to the dock. When we do crew rowing we have permanent shoes in the boat that we slide our feet into. Most people put socks on (stuffed into the leg of their uni) when they get onto the seat and some wear water shoes if the permanent shoes are too big (Masters rowing we share men’s & women’s boats, so the shoes are often too big). The socks get wet and when we dock we need to find our shoes, which means we have to take the socks off and put our shoes on before lifting the boat out of the water and carrying it up the dock to wash and store!
I am sure you can see the value of the Five Fingers—I had at least 20+ questions yesterday on my [Classic VFFs] and socks. The director and former National Teams member Stanford Coach said, “Marsha you always find the coolest things.” …
Both Yaz Farooq (Gold Medal Olympic coxswai)n and the Coach of Stanford Colliegiate Women NCAA Champions knew all about [VFFs]. She said, “They are for running,” when showing another of the coaches on her team, so I told her I had never run in them—but they rocked for boat use.
Like I said, I never have to take them of—all day, in and out of the boats, up and down the dock. I [think I] will be seeing lots of them as so many people commented and loved them. I will be getting another pair, probably a colored pair.
I am going to try them next on the rowing machine (ERGOMETER). I teach a indoor rowing class, I will let you know.
Best, Marsha
BIAC/NORCAL Crews,
Redwood City, California
Sounds like your fivefingers are a real match for rowing! I actually have used mine on the “Erg” and they seem to do fine in that application with the only “hitch” being that the straps tend to be way too loose having been set for prior users wearing sneakers.
Thanks for sharing, Marsha!
One reply on “Marsha Rows in Classic Vibram Five Fingers”
I wore my KSOs for the first time at the gym to an Indo-row class. They were great! It seemed that they were much easier to get into the straps and my feet felt more connected to the machine than bigger shoes. I will certainly wear them again for rowing at the gym.