Part II
Victoria Draper, owner of Rowbics Indoor Rowing Inc., kept asking herself, “what else can I do?’
Already, she had the experience with rowing/exercise to teach classes at the Long Beach Boathouse. She had the following of the local health nuts and people frustrated with their local gym. Now all she needed was a program, or a lesson plan, for Rowbics to really take off.
“Let’s say you’re taking a History 101 class. The professor tells you what to read and what’s important. Everyone has same information and same format. What would happen if you showed up and there was no instructor and just a pile of books on the desk? Reality is that most people don’t know a lot about rowing. How do you know you’re getting a workout?”
That’s when Draper created “The Manual.”
“It’s a structured workout. First, it’s the rowing drills and traditional rowing commands. Then break it up into strength training with curls, squats, getting on and off the machine…you have to do a balanced amount on each area. It’s like a dance routine. Different dance choreographers do different things that make them so unique.”
“Rowbics is perfect because it’s going to add balance to your life, it’s a lot of fun, and it doesn’t take a lot of time to get a full body workout. It gives you aerobic, strength training that might take four or five days at the gym…It’s something that you can take out on the water later. It’s not going to challenge your joints because it’s non-impact. You go at your own rate.”
At the rate her business was growing in early 2008, Draper’s classes were overflowing, but so were her responsibilities.
“I had a vision of where I wanted to go, but I didn’t have the energy. I need people.”
She needed people like Todd Mehl.
Mehl was the seventh student in 2004. He knew he liked the program, but didn’t know how to help. “What Victoria had created, exercise founded in rowing, it was perfect.”
What Mehl saw in Draper, she saw in him. That crew “get it done now” mentality.
“Todd is a hard core. We hit Second St. with some flyers… we handed out more flyers than I could count.”
And that’s when Mehl became Director of Sales of Marketing “We believe in the product,” says Mehl. “That makes it easy. It sells itself.”
Mehl brought with him more clients, and Draper needed even more people. People like Kingsley Echlin.
A former runner with a knee injury, Echlin was looking for an alternative to her first love. “I moved to Long Beach a little over 3 years ago and live near the LBRA. I actually saw Victoria’s car when I was out driving and wrote down the 800 number on a napkin in my car. I started taking the classes, and after about 3 months, Victoria and I began talking and I said I loved paperwork and she said she loathed it. It was a match!”
Since that day, Echlin has been doing all the paperwork for Rowbics including memberships, instructor payroll, schedules and pricing.
“Rowbics is great on so many levels,” says Echlin. “It’s do-able for any fitness level. It’s non-impact so people with injuries like mine can get a great workout, and the better your technique, the better your workout.”
Echlin took a lot of stuff off of Draper’s plate, but Mehl had been working hard and the classes were officially too big for the Boathouse. Draper began looking for a new location for her ever-growing vision. While she did that, she needed people like Lauren Dees.
Dees had been working with a personal trainer on and off and maintaining a consistent gym schedule, but the routine became monotonous. Her mother had been a member of Rowbics for some time and encouraged Dees to try it. Dees took her first class in October of 2007, and loved it.
“It was a breath of fresh air,” says Dees. “An energetic environment with a variety of ages and sizes and fitness levels. I couldn’t get enough… I joined my mom and signed up for a monthly-unlimited membership. I was hooked, my mom and I even joined the LBRA Boathouse so we could participate in the C2 Holiday Challenge (rowing 100,000 or 200,000 meters from Thanksgiving to Christmas).”
The timing was perfect for Dees, because the Beach Sprints were right around the corner in January. “To get ready for the sprints, my mom and I decided to take part in the 2-day Training and Certification for Concept 2 Indoor Rowing Foundations and Rowbics Instructor Training. We worked with a wonderful group of athletes and we accomplished what we wanted – better understanding of the rowing stroke and consequently better technique.”
Dees has since graduated from Rowbics student, to an on-the-water rower, to Rowbics instructor, and now is also the Creative Director for Rowbics. “My mom brought me in, and the program kept me in… everything from the class formula and music, to the passion of Victoria, Todd, and the Rowbics family. Rowbics is good for the soul. It’s a social atmosphere where neighbors and friends meet to work towards a common goal of overall health. I can’t tell you how many wonderful people I’ve met and friends I’ve made through Rowbics. When I moved back to Long Beach, I didn’t know many folks and Rowbics made me feel like I was part of a community. I get to hear about personal victories, which remind me why I do what I do. Students tell me that they lost another 3 pounds, that they fit into their “thin” clothes again, that they went on a hike and made it up to the top of the hill, that they feel stronger and more confident… it melts my heart every time.”
So, with the people in place and her classes bursting at the seams, Draper was asking herself again, “What else can I do?”
Want to find out what else Draper & Rowbics did?
Come back to LBPostSports.com next week to read the third part of our three-part story about Rowbics and the Beach Sprints sponsored by the Long Beach Rowing Association.
Disclosure: Rowbics is an advertiser on lbpost.com