There is an art to rowing badly, and it's a lot easier than rowing well. According to Curlew's coach Ray, rowing well should feel uncomfortable (and then you know you are doing it right).Any comfort factor generally implies that you are simply 'rowing' as opposed to moving the boat.

The story of the Alternative Rower starts in 1991 when a mixed blessing arrived at the doors of Curlew. He could drink beer, bought his round, but couldn't coordinate any two limbs to save his life. It soon dawned on us that Curlew couldn't be unique in having rowers of his qualities. Six foot 4 inches with not the slightest hint of coordination, he was the stuff of raw novice. And he stayed that way.

The very first Alternative Rower cartoon was called "Team Carrolli" after the  famous clown and was loosely based upon events during the Gloucester, Bristol, Ross on Wye Regatta weekend of 1992. A few scripts with suitable beer lubricant later, and there was enough material for the cartoon series as featured in Regatta. Thanks to Chris Dodd editor of Regatta (and all those at Regatta incidentally) for supporting the early strips.

Above is part of the very first cartoon of the Alternative Rower as featured in Regatta. All that remains of this early artwork in the new cartoons are the hair, butt, belly and smile. We lost the bat cape early on. - the complete cartoon is buried somewhere under heaps of paperwork and the computer version is archived beyond mere mortal retrieval.

And below, here are a few more early examples:

A boat trestle	Concentration

So there you have it. As for the title ' The Alternative Rower' it was a sort of attempt to mean the other way of rowing (as opposed to only way that our coaches try to teach us).

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