Once a year, residents of Boston and its neighboring suburbs crowd the bridges and riverbanks along the Charles River to watch one of the biggest rowing regattas in the world: the Head of the Charles. They block traffic. They congest the MBTA. They cheer with an enthusiasm usually reserved for a Celtics or Red Sox game. Then, they head home and don’t think about crew again for another year.
Though crew generally remains a niche sport across the United States, the Greater Boston area has a uniquely large concentration of rowers and rowing clubs. Out of the 1,677 unique rowing blades, or the faces of the oars, whose patterns are registered to U.S. colleges, clubs and junior programs on OarSpotter, 60 belong to organizations located in Boston, Cambridge, Newton, Wellesley, Waltham and Brookline. While these cities and towns are collectively home to 0.33 percent of the U.S. population, they host 3.58 percent of all registered U.S. Rowing organizations.
Javier Suarez, a Boston native and Manager of Middle School Programs at Community Rowing Inc. (CRI) said that although he believes the sport is gaining momentum, it’s failing to adequately market itself to the Boston community.
“The only [regattas] I’ve been to are the regattas on the Charles,” Suarez said. “I would say not a lot of people from within the city know, and so a lot of people are coming from abroad, which is great. But I feel like if more people in the community were to know, they’d probably come out and support and also partake.”
Suarez mentioned that unlike the Boston Marathon, the Head of the Charles has less of a focus on community. He said that at the regattas he has attended, the majority of vendors and tables are exclusively rowing-related.
“When it’s events like [the Boston Marathon], everybody shows up because they are invited to host an activity,” Suarez said. “I feel like for the regatta, what I’ve seen is mostly rowing-related tables, which, obviously, that’s why we’re here, but that’s one thing that hinders a community from partaking.”
Barriers to entry
Rachel Hunter, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the nonprofit STEM To Stern (STS), said that she believes there exist eight main barriers to community access. She described them as “rowing, STEM education, transportation, nutrition, financial assistance, community partners, swimming proficiency and volunteers” and says that one of STS’ main missions is to eliminate said barriers.
“The barriers to entry are really crucial for making the sport more accessible, and I think that a lot of them are deep-rooted issues in minority communities and communities that experience poverty,” Hunter said. “It’s important that rowing clubs can address all of them to provide better access to students.”
One barrier that Hunter placed heavy emphasis on was swimming proficiency. According to Hunter, while STS and its coaches take every safety measure to ensure that students don’t tip into the water when rowing, swimming proficiency is a must for the rare occasions where accidents do happen.
“Rowing is a sport that takes place mostly on large bodies of water, and it’s really important that if you’re going to be on the water that you have swimming proficiency,” Hunter said. “Students that come from underserved backgrounds and from minority communities often don’t have access to swimming lessons, especially if you’re growing up in the city where you’re not frequently exposed to water or opportunities to swim.”
Another hurdle that comes with crew being a water-bound sport is the limited options in practice venues. Unlike basketball or soccer, which Suarez described as sports that people can “just partake in,” rowers have to be able to access a car or bike. While some other rivers and lakes may be more directly connected to public transportation, Suarez said that’s not an option for rowers on the Charles.
“It’s easier to access other [sports] without feeling you have to be at a particular place to engage. Also, with [the Charles], there’s no access directly from the train,” Suarez said. “I don’t think it has to do anything with the sport. It just has to do with a lot of other factors that might be going on in their lives.”
Suarez said that transportation poses less of an issue to the rowers he coaches because he primarily focuses on introducing kids to the sport via indoor rowing. During the school year, Suarez and his team travel to partner schools around Boston with indoor rowing machines, often referred to as ergs. Often, they come in as guests during middle school gym classes, where they host demonstrations and teach lessons on how to start rowing.
“Some schools might have us there one hour, two times a week, and some schools might have us there one hour every day. It just really depends on what the needs of the school [are] during that time period,” Suarez said.
Education
Like Suarez, Hunter primarily focuses on providing support to middle school students. According to Hunter, students start identifying with their sports and activities around 8th grade.
“If we can approach students in 6th and 7th grade before they’ve kind of latched on to basketball, or soccer, or football, or one of the other sports and make sure that they have the opportunity to even know that rowing exists, we have found that we can help students start building that rower identity,” Hunter said. “They can relate to kids on the team, they can make friends. When you start building that foundation when they’re younger, it translates really well when they move into high school.”
Hunter said that another benefit of focusing on younger students is that STS is able to provide educational opportunities to students earlier in their academic careers. Apart from eliminating barriers, STS’ other primary goal is giving students high-quality education in STEM.
“STEM is really similar to rowing in that a lot of students come from communities where there aren’t going to be accessible after-school STEM activities, or they might not be able to see themselves going into a STEM profession,” Hunter said. “We want to make sure that they have the opportunity to learn about those through STEM To Stern.”
Though STS focuses on the middle school level, the program continues to provide support to students throughout high school. Students are paired with tutors if needed, and upperclassmen are given the opportunity to work with counselors who can advise students on their future and help them with scholarships, athletic recruitment and college and job applications.
Cost
It’s arguable, however, that the largest barrier to overcome is not swimming proficiency, nor transportation or education. It’s the cost.
According to Cause IQ, a website that tracks 501(c)(3) nonprofits’ spending, the Friends of Brookline Rowing (FoBR) spent $430,594 in 2023. FoBR’s self-written description on Cause IQ states that it “supports Brookline Rowing by paying for operating expenses not covered by Brookline High School and purchasing boats.” Expenses include “coaching stipends, insurance for all boats, maintenance and repairs, training equipment, race registration fees and expenses.”
These expenditures are in addition to the budget allocated by the high school to the crew team during the spring season, which can extend from late March to early June. According to OpenGov, the Public Schools of Brookline’s athletics program spent $2,307,072 for all sports between March and June 2023 across both its elementary and high school programs.
Alex Lynn, a coach at CRI, described rowing as simply “very expensive.” According to Corin Wiggins, a student at Syracuse University and creator of the @theblackcoxswain account on Instagram, the cost is why financial support is necessary for many rowers.
“I think scholarships are important because our sport is so expensive and even just to participate on a team, I know it costs money,” Wiggins said. “My parents spent thousands of dollars just for me to participate, and that’s not including a uni[suit] or any other equipment that I need.”
Suarez said the sport is one that attracts a particular socioeconomic demographic and tends to filter out people who don’t fit that profile.
“It is a sport that does not necessarily cater to the elite per se; it’s just obviously there’s a certain cost associated with all this that might not be accessible to everyone,” Suarez said. “I feel like that’s something that I always notice, that I’ll see rich people of every kind or people that have money and wealth of every kind.”
According to Hunter, a lot of expenses are due to equipment pricing. The cheapest Concept2 sweep oar is $360. The most popular boat classes are fours and eights, which require four and eight sweep oars, respectively. One set of new oars for an eight would cost $2,880 at the cheapest. However, she doesn’t believe that’s the main reason entry fees remain so high.
“Rowing equipment is really expensive, but I think in a lot of ways, there’s just really high fees for joining clubs, even if the equipment is older,” Hunter said. “So typically equipment is going to be really expensive, but there’s a lot of ways to get around that through donations. It’s important to make sure that there’s still ways that students who can’t afford the really high fees can still [participate].”
Lynn admitted that CRI, in addition to many other Boston clubs, has a high annual membership fee. However, he said that there are options to reduce or waive payment.
“[For] a lot of clubs, especially around Boston, membership can range from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. That’s definitely out of reach for a lot of the Boston and Cambridge communities,” Lynn said. “We…do offer financial aid to those that are interested, and also free rowing to Boston Public School students. We at CRI have the resources we need to lower the cost of rowing, or even make rowing free for some students in some groups.”
Historical reputation
While there have been significant initiatives taken in recent years, Hunter said that the majority of action has been recent.
“Rowing has a really rich history of typically being a pretty white, wealthy sport, and I think just due to the historical and systematic barriers that have been put up, that’s kind of how it’s remained for a really long time,” Hunter said. “Only over the last couple of years have a lot of groups started up to really try to eliminate some of those barriers, but there’s still a long way to go to make rowing accessible to all communities.”
Lynn attributes the “primarily white” rowing culture to its deep connection to collegiate sports. According to him, rowing has “always been” primarily a collegiate sport, with programs located mostly at predominantly white schools.
“When it comes to the history of rowing, especially if we’re talking about 19th century and 20th century collegiate sports atmosphere, you only had a certain group of people joining these sports because of their financial ties or alumni backgrounds, or just their extensive network connections that got them into those said colleges,” Lynn said. “It’s primarily been a pretty exclusive sport because of its roots and still is even to this day.”
Wiggins, who identifies as Black, said that she was driven to start her Instagram page because she did not see many other athletes of color.
“When I joined my program, I was one of three Black people, and I looked into other high school programs and I didn’t see many athletes of color,” Wiggins said. “I started the page with the hope of just seeing other athletes in the sport that looked like me and then reaching out to them and hearing about their experience, because there were things that I was learning and experiencing that I felt I couldn’t talk to people on my team about.”
Wiggins said that while a lot of other sports face a lack of racial diversity, the issue is especially amplified within crew.
“I would say a lot of sports have this, but I would say rowing is very specific because of the history of our sport. A lot of sports are very white, but I think people of color over the years have found a way to kind of break in and create access,” Wiggins said. “We’re still working on other sports, but rowing, I feel, has been drawn out. Even now, it’s still a very, very white sport, and it is very, very hard for athletes of color to not only participate, but to stay in the sport and then also excel and be given opportunities to do well.”
Current political climate
In an email to the Cypress in 2025, Hunter wrote that while she’s aware that changing political attitudes may affect public opinion of STS and their work, STS’ “mission, values, and goal remain the same–to open up doors for students who would not be able to experience rowing or STEM education otherwise.”
“Work in the diversity and inclusion space is more important than ever. We approach our work in the same way, with enthusiasm!” Hunter wrote. “Our partner programs are committed to making their boathouse as accessible and inclusive as possible…There will always be a reaction to events going on in the world, but our programs remain dedicated to making a difference in their communities.”
In an impact report sent to The Cypress, STS reported a 60 percent increase in athlete participation, from 250+ students in 2023 to 400+ in 2024. Hunter wrote in her email statement that STS’ goal in 2025 is to serve over 500 students.
Suarez said in a 2025 interview that for his students, once they gain more experience and confidence in ergs, the students have the option to try on-water rowing via field trips and CRI’s learn-to-row programs. Students also have the option to stay on land and race in indoor rowing contests.
“We also have our Let’s Row Championships, which is an opportunity for all of our students to see all the other schools that are also partaking in the program and have the opportunity to have a competitive spirit,” Suarez said. “Even though they won’t partake in other forms of competition, it just gives them an insider’s perspective of what a rowing competition might look like.”
This year, the Let’s Row Championships were hosted on Thursday, April 17, at UMass Boston. According to Suarez, the event had an attendance of around 1,300 students.
Looking back, Hunter thinks there’s been tangible progress, but that doesn’t mean more can’t be done.
“Rowing has certainly earned a reputation of being an uninviting sport, due to the white, wealthy nature of our history,” Hunter said. “While we’re starting to take the first couple steps, it’s going to take a while to dismantle the reputation that rowing has as a sport, and it’s important to listen to the people that aren’t having positive experiences and work with them to try to figure out what we can do best.”
Note: A majority of the interviews featured in this article were conducted in the previous school year. Those conducted in the 2024-25 school year will be marked as such.
