Words + photography:
Merijn Soeters
The very last week before the traditional start of the rowing season in the Netherlands and frost hit the nation. Rivers, channels, and lakes; all rowing waterways were turned into thick layers of ice. The Dutch did what they do best; they got out on skates. But Nereus of Amsterdam had a reputation to uphold as winners of the Heineken Four Distance Cup (Roeivierkamp) the next weekend. Head coach and five-fold Olympic rower Diederik Simon came up with a costly but clever idea; all boats were moved to the 90ft (30 meter) deep Sloterplas. Dug out in the 1950s to provide sand for building new parts of Amsterdam, this bottomless lake did not freeze over. The apartment buildings provide a welcome change of scenery for an Amsterdam-based rowing photographer.