Suraj Chaitan joined Row New York’s Adaptive Team last year. He tells his story about becoming a rower and inventing a piece of rowing equipment. In-person spring programming has been canceled due to COVID-19.
by Suraj Chaitan March 10th, 2020.
I started rowing last year. Medical-wise, I was going through so many different things that I wasn’t able to finish a whole season. I spent a lot of time in the hospital and had some different surgeries so I wasn’t able to involve myself as much as I wanted. You could say I got my feet wet but nothing too crazy.
When I was doing it, I found a passion for it and it was great.
This year, I’m in a completely different state of health. I’ll be able to apply myself 110% to rowing. So that’s where we’re at.
I do have a physical disability but before rowing, I was oblivious to adaptive sports and other sports activities I could get involved in. In my life, I just worked and went to school. The only adaptive activity I did before rowing was wheelchair basketball in high school and that was for a short period of time.
One day last year, I was on Facebook, and I saw that one of my friends was rowing in Flushing, so I messaged her to ask about it. She sent me Coach Carol’s number. I got in touch and started going to practice. Then I had the year I had to focus on my health and now, I’m attending every Recreational Adaptive practice on Saturdays and Competitive Adaptive practices on Fridays. I’m going to add in more practices over time, as I get better.
At practice, I met Katherine and she told me about wheelchair tennis so I signed up for that. There, I met John, who’s in charge of the Wheelchair Sports Federation. He introduced me to a lot of different activities and he’s encouraging me to join wheelchair basketball now and softball in the spring. It’s great because I’m staying busy, getting fit and becoming more active.
As of now, I’m still in the practicing stages but as I do it more and especially when I race, I will consider myself an athlete.
For a little bit of background, I went to school to be a mechanic and I work on cars. So for me, building and repairing things come naturally. I see things and always think about how they can be different, how I can improve them. I love taking things apart and putting them back together.
So one day at practice, I was rowing and my legs kept turning inward. The coach asked me if I wanted something to place in between so I said, “sure, let’s try it.” She gave me a piece of foam to put between my legs to keep everything in place. I noticed the piece would keep moving so I wondered how I could take this idea and improve it.
That day, I got home went shopping for a piece of foam and velcro to make something. As I was shopping, I found different items and thought of ways to improve on my initial idea. It was exciting. I went to 5Below and bought some foam back rollers. I cut them down to nine inches for mine and down to six inches for the six others I was making for Row New York. I cut the velcro straps and braided them through the foam. Now, you can put the foam in between your legs, secure it and it doesn’t move.
I knew I could improve that idea. That’s why I went out and made a better solution. I’m happy to do anything I can to make the rowing better for me and for other athletes. I made the same pieces for other athletes because knowing that I made someone else’s process easier makes my day.
I look forward to rowing every week. Being sick took a lot out of me. When I got better, the first thing I did was go on vacation. Then, I came back motivated to focus on myself and rehab my life in the process. I always give 110% during every practice. The way I see it, the more you put in, the more you’ll get out. Healthwise, rowing has helped me. I’ve become a healthier person, I’m changed a lot of my habits and I’ve started to incorporate a lot of other activities.
My rowing goals are to get on the water. Last year, I was in the barge a couple of times and got a feel for the stroke. This winter I have just done indoor training so the next thing is to get on the water and do a competition. My Coach Denise has been telling me to sign up to race in the spring and summer and I said “Yes! Sign me up!” I love challenging myself with different activities.
Rowing is a lot of hard work, yes, but I’m enjoying it knowing that the hard work will be worth it and I’ll get in a boat and I will get to race. Plus you get to be outside, get fresh air, go on the water and row. It’s the greatest thing in the world. I love that!
To anyone thinking of trying adaptive rowing, I would tell them to try it. You owe it to yourself to try it because the worst thing is that you don’t like it, then they don’t have to do it again. But I can’t imagine someone not liking it.
