Pierre Cotton is the president of Aviron du Lac Bleu rowing club, an associative structure (142 members) run by volunteers on the beautiful lake of Paladru, in the French Alps. We asked him to share his experience with Liteboat as a rowing club president, and how these boats are interesting to teach people how to row.
What are your club’s goals?
I have been president of the rowing club of Paladru for a year and a half now. Our club is mainly composed by adult members oriented towards a leisure practice. We want to support our members as best as we can in their practice and help them progress in the best conditions. We also want to develop the practice of rowing among young people as well as health rowing.
How did you hear about Liteboat boats?
I got to know the brand through word of mouth, especially through trainers discussions about the equipment. My first contact with Liteboat took place during a demonstration carried out by a member of your team.
How Liteboat boats help you achieve your goals?
At first I was a little hesitant about the idea of acquiring a Liteboat because my vision of rowing was more oriented towards skiffs. After trying out your boat, I realized that your leisure range would greatly help us achieve our goals. Indeed, while trying out your boats, I realized that the boats we had did not really meet the needs of our members. Today, we are convinced that the stability and ease of use of your boats will allow us to further reassure our new rowers and encourage them to continue their practice of rowing.
How do your club members rate Liteboats?
Liteboats are the most used boats in our club, whether by new rowers, young people or the most experienced. This is due to the fact that they provide rowers with an incomparable feeling of comfort. In addition, the Liteboats react perfectly to different weather conditions. We aim to develop school rowing in order to introduce rowing to the new generation. The lightness of the LiteSPORT 1X makes its use quite possible for the youngest.
How do our boats help your members progress in their practice?
The LiteSPORT 1X and the LiteRIVER are not skiffs due to their width and stability. But they allow our members to progress in their practice in complete safety. New practitioners can first go to the LiteSPORT 1X in order to gain a little experience. Once more experienced, they can consider rowing on LiteRIVERs, which are more technical than the LiteSPORT range. We have different versions of LiteRIVER (S version and L version), and they allow our members to practice rowing more sportively than the LiteSPORT. They are intermediate boats, between beginner boats and competition skiffs. We would eventually like to expand our fleet of LiteRIVERs.
How do you envision the development of health rowing and how our boats help you achieve this?
Our coach Gervaise obtained her „Health Rowing” diploma recognized by the French Rowing Federation, this shows our motivation to develop health rowing. Even if there is still a long way to go to develop this practice of rowing, we believe that Liteboats will help us in this process. We hope to be able to acquire new Liteboats soon in order to meet our objectives.
