& More 2015
Row... Row...
Row... Your Boat
But this certainly wasn’t across a stream;
4 polo players dismount to tackle the mighty Atlantic
By Bobby Melville Photos compliments of Atlantic Polo Team and Ben Duffy
D
epending which side of the risk barometer you sit on, the below
adventure for a team of 4 polo players fits into either one of
these categories; crazy or cool. Whichever it is, it certainly is not
an undertaking for the faint of heart
We first heard of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge through a
mutual friend, Julia Immonen, who completed the minimum 5000km
row 3 years ago and also holds two Guinness World Records. She
was very inspiring and upon further investigation we realised this
was an adventure as much as a challenge. Something we could
really test ourselves in doing, mentally and physically; it has it all. As
professional sportsmen we were looking for something that would
take us out of our comfort zones and this certainly ticked all the boxes!
For the majority of teams, the journey to the start line is a 1-3 year
period of planning, training and fund raising. However, in fitting with
the mantra ‘last to the start line, first to the finish’, which became the
boat’s motto, we actually only confirmed the boat builder, Cris Rossiter,
to build “Tiny Dancer” in April 2013 - 7 months before the race! It
was very tight getting the boat to La Gomera in time; she didn’t even
touch English water to try her out!
Aside from the frenzied construction, we also had a very short time
frame to completely change our bodies from those suitable for polo
to those suitable for rowing an ocean. In terms of training, we were
very lucky to be sponsored by Surrey Sports Park and guided every
day by a personal trainer, Tom Batchelor, who also looks after the
Harlequins rugby team. The Sports Park has state of the art facilities
and also a Human Performance Institute with labs and equipment
to assess our lactate, VO2 Max and respiratory rates, among other
things while rowing and they monitored our every move. Every week
we had a new day-by-day training programme and targets ranging
from 5000 meters on a concept 2 ergo rowing machine to 12,500,
as well as interval training of 8 x 500 meters with 1 minute breaks.
Diet was also critical in preparing our bodies for the wastage that
would happen at sea and putting on weight nearer the time was
crucial as we dropped 20% of body weight during the row. We each
had to put on 20 kilos, which is an awful lot of protein shakes!
Training aside there were many elements to getting prepared for an
Above: The Atlantic Polo Team in Antigua after completion of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge
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