WORDS RACHEL HALLIBURTON
A recent president of the San Diego Rowing Club declared that in its early days, “The place was filled with real characters. It truly was a place where two men could be sunning in the nude while discussing the economy; one a cab driver, the other one a bank president.” The club started out from humble beginnings in 1888, founded by 13 rowing enthusiasts in what would eventually be described by one San Diego journalist as a “ramshackle clubhouse at the foot of E Street”. One hundred and twenty years – and no doubt many sun-soaked discussions – later, the ramshackle clubhouse has long been left behind for a state-of-the-art premises right on the edge of Mission Bay.