Growth. Thrill. Community. An escape. There are many reasons why people play and enjoy sports, but these descriptors ring most true for junior Carsten Bauer, a highly talented rower. Six days a week, Bauer attends 90-minute practices at Lake Phalen Rowing Club, which, unlike its name suggests, now rows on Gervais Lake in Little Canada, just north of downtown Saint Paul.
Bauer began rowing in seventh grade at his school in Berlin, Germany, rowing being quite popular in Europe and Berlin especially, where he quickly developed a passion for the sport and the sense of community and accomplishment it provided.
In 8th grade, he decided to pursue rowing more competitively, joining a prominent youth club in Berlin. “Rowing taught me the importance of hard work and determination, especially in the eighth grade,” Bauer said. “At that time, it wasn’t like I was lazy or something, but I had never worked so hard at just one thing and been so determined at one thing. But when I joined the rowing club, they were extremely competitive. Everybody was showing up to all the practices and [was] already really good. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I need to catch up with these people,’ who were some of the best in the nation.”
To his own surprise, Bauer found success on the national level in Germany, placing eighth in the nation for his age group after a year of competitive training with the new team. “The team culture really rubbed off on me. And when I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, if I just work really hard, I can place high and be kind of crazy at this sport,’ that really taught me something. This is almost like a secret to success; if I just keep working hard, then [success] is guaranteed.”
Although there are many different events in rowing, some where each racer is responsible for one or two oars, and with boats ranging from one to eight people, Bauer specializes in racing single and double boats, both with two oars and always racing a distance of 2 km. Races never fail to exhilarate him: “A hidden beauty of rowing is the thrill of racing. In a rowing boat, you’re facing backwards [and] you’re watching the person behind you the whole time,” he said. “It’s a really big thrill, especially after the race, when you’re remembering it or during the race, when you’re like, ‘Oh no, they’re getting closer’ or, ‘Oh, let’s go, we’re getting further.’”
After moving to Minnesota before his ninth-grade year at SPA, Bauer began rowing with his current club at Gervais Lake, just 10 minutes from his house in Roseville. After another year of intense training, he found success again at the USA U-17 Nationals, placing 12th in the doubles. In the same age group, Bauer placed 22nd last year, this time racing in the singles.
A testament to his dedication, Bauer practices year-round, training off the water for much of this time. “During the winter, you can’t row on the water in Minnesota, obviously, I won’t be on the water [until] as late as Apr. 22 or something. I a lot of winter training on the rowing machines using Concept2 machines, the standard ones,” he said. “In the spring, it’s just being on the water all the time for a long time, racing from one end to the other and trying to get the technique back. It’s kind of like riding a bike, you know? It comes back to you, but you gotta get it back.”
Bauer just got back on the water again a few weeks ago, but his foot is on the gas already—there is very little time before this season’s biggest events, called regattas. Many rowing events are spread throughout the country, providing Bauer with the chance to travel every few weeks during competition season. In just a week and a half, he will attend the Midwest Junior Regional Championships in Bethel, Ohio, from May 18 to 19. Bauer hopes to qualify for nationals again, this year in mid-June; to do so, he must place first or second, a harder challenge as a U-19 rower this season.
In many different ways, rowing is a huge part of Carsten Bauer’s life. Though competitiveness has certainly driven Bauer to reach for the stars, it’s the joy of consistent training with his team that makes rowing so valuable to him. “Whatever’s going on in my life, regardless of how stressed I am or what assignments I have, I always have practice. It’s a way to not think about that and instead focus on form and talk to friends,” he said. “Rowing keeps me grounded because it’s a lot of hours every day. It’s something I always do, and that’s a regularity. I really enjoy spending time with friends, and I just love training.”
