The Wondrous Sport of Rowing” Phil Stekl. - A review by John Cumper

“The Wondrous Sport of Rowing”
Phil Stekl.
I have recently read a book written by an American Phil Stekl. Phil was
selected in the US Olympic Teams in 1980 and 1984. The US boycotted the
1980 games, but in the 1984 Olympics, he won a silver medal in the coxless
four.
His book is The Wondrous Sport of Rowing and it’s not at all what you might
expect from an Olympian. The text is spare and given to whimsical rhyme,
jokes, and to the children’s game “I spy with my little eye.
After a career in finance, he returned to another passion–photography.
And this book is a paean to the fellowship within rowing, of the family that
we rowers belong to. “Virtually everything good that’s happened in my life
has happened because of rowing,” Phil stated in a recent interview.
He met his wife, Inge, at the 1978 Worlds in New Zealand, where she was
rowing for Austria. He reiterates that relationships with people of quality
met through rowing, his relationship with nature, equipment, water, job
opportunities–so much stems from rowing.
The photographs are beautiful. Whether it’s the opening pages, where you
see only the stern of a single gliding across the water, the magnificent
images of a lone single sculler on the Millstättersee, a pristine lake in
southern Austria, or the majesty of the Bled racecourse, Phil’s images
invite us into a deep gaze, to immerse ourselves in the water. I hadn’t
realized the extent to which rowing amplifies the beauty of nature until I
let myself get lost in some of these pages.
It’s not all about the beauty of rowing. There’s also the humour of the
Vienna starting-line area. Anyone who has ever rowed or cycled next to
this course on the Danube will smile, recalling what is sprawled on the
river bank, while competing rowers groan and strain and coaches cycle
past. There is a terrific sequence of an eight that captures the panic of an
ejector crab and the smiles that light up the crew’s faces when he makes it
back into their shell.
This thin volume of photographs, taken in the US and Europe, and verse, is
a celebration of the community that we rowers are all a part of. This
unique and compelling book makes that case beautifully. It may help
those non rowers who question the sanity of rowers, understand aspects of
the sport not readily obvious. Leave it on the coffee table, as I have found,
they will enjoy it.
Having gained so much from water, Phil is giving back–51 percent of the
book’s net proceeds are being donated to the Kafue River and Rowing
Centre, the joint initiative of World Rowing and the World-Wide Fund for
Nature.
The book is on sale through Amazon.

(John Cumper)