Safety
Rock Creek Rowing is committed to safety. During each water practice, our men's and women's coaches are in separate safety launches while they accompany the rowers in the rowing shells.
All team members are required to annually
1. Complete Safe Sport misconduct training as required by US Rowing.
2. Review our Safety Plan.
3. View the USRowing Safety procedure Video below.
Required Safe Sport online training
Annually complete Safe Sport misconduct training as required by US Rowing.
All RCR rowers and staff must complete Safe Sport misconduct/abuse training since we have coxswains who are minors. To complete your required free SafeSport training or 30 minute Refresher training,
1. Equipment: On a mobile device or laptop create a Safe Sport account following instructions below. During the training, if you have quirky behavior on a mobile device then use Chrome browser on a laptop.
2. To verify your Safe Sport status,
- Login to your USRowing ‘individual’ account or join USRowing if you have no individual account https://membership.usrowing.org/
- In your USRowing Membership Profile below your membership name, view your Safe Sport training status. If it is in green, then your training is current.
3. If you need to take/retake Safe Sport training,
- access the training https://membership.usrowing.org/individual/safesport <== TRAINING LINK
4. Safe Sport FAQs can usually answer any questions you may have:
Potomac River Safety Committee Resources
The Potomac River Safety Committee (PRSC) was formed by several rowing organizations to provide safety guidance to the broader rowing community.
See the PRSC's thorough listing and explanations of RULES AND GUIDELINES for the local rowing community on the Potomac River. Resources in that document include over 60 pages of annotated photos, useful matrixes and a map of the river (displayed below) showing the Potomac's traffic patterns and hazards. In addition, rowers should be mindful of weather conditions and river levels. See below for a link to the Potomac River Little Falls river gauge and guidance regarding river conditions at particular river gauge levels.
Ultimately safety is a matter for your judgment taking all available information into account. For further information, here's a link to the Potomac River Safety Committee's website.
USRowing recommends that rowing safety incidents for each body of water be reported to the local rowing safety committee. For our section of the Potomac River that is the PRSC. The PRSC has an Incident Report Form to collect specific facts about any incident and to analyze data to determine where issues are arising on the river. If you are involved in an incident, complete the PRSC form and submit it electronically to the PRSC.
Water Level Guidelines
The Potomac River Safety Committee suggests these general guidelines for interpreting the gauge height:
| 3-4 Ft. | Normal river conditions. |
| 5 Ft. | “Action Stage” at Little Falls Guage. Current picks up. Minor “swirlies” just down stream of Hens & Chickens. |
| 6 Ft. | Larger swirlies, forceful current, noticeable debris possible. Small boats unadvised and large boats by experienced crews only. |
| 7 Ft. | Rowers are advised not to launch. Strong, swift currents, large debris to be expected. |
| 10+ Ft. | Flood stage. |
| 12 Ft. | Moderate Flood Stage |
| 14 Ft. | Major Flood Stage |
Potomac River Traffic and Hazards Map (click image to enlarge in new window)
Beware Submerged Rocks Above 3 Sisters
Wake up your feathering muscles
Before we get back on the water in the Spring after a winter of no feathering, here's how to wake up those feathering muscles.
Use Good Technique To Avoid Injuries
Video: Concept2’s Common Rowing Technique Errors
Video viewing hint: youtube videos are viewable frame by frame on a laptop by pausing the video then toggling with the comma (,) and period (.) keys to move backwards and forwards one frame at a time.
