In any boating activity the number one rule is: “if you are not sure, stay on shore.”
In an email to parents and youth rowers this evening club director Gene Kininmonth wrote that “I am not sure this is the right time.”
“I have spoken to parents who don’t want their child rowing if everyone is not wearing a mask in the boat. I have also talked to parents who have said they do not want their child wearing a mask while rowing due to potential detrimental health effects – yes there do appear to be very valid health concerns for youth exercising in hot temperatures while wearing a mask. The science is far from settled on this. Also, I have talked to youth rowers who have jobs working in the public domain exposing them to the virus and they are terrified they could pass this on to their crewmates and their families,” said Gene.
USRowing recently updated its guidelines in place for returning to team boats. One metric is that new transmissions in the past 7 days should be under 50 cases per 100,000 people in your local county. Guilford County is currently showing 59 new cases per 100,000 in the past week, meaning the local rate of new transmissions is higher than the recommended guideline.
An follow up email will go out to rowing families after the July 4th weekend.
