In Repose
For fifteen years I lived close to the Oakland Estuary (until I was forced out of my studio a few months ago by an overnight 50% rent rise). The Estuary’s an interesting stretch of water, starting as a small artificial canal and ending in a large container port (the Port Of Oakland), and inhabited by everything from huge floating salvage and construction cranes and dredges, through sea-going barges and tugs, to workaday construction, fishing, and pleasure boats. It’s also heavily polluted, of course, and crossed by several classic working 1920’s era drawbridges, one of which (Park Street Bridge) I used to walk over nearly every day to get to the shops or just for a stroll.
When I first moved to the area, I was amazed to discover that people actually rowed small sculls and fours and eights in the Estuary and port, gliding past and through all that heavy traffic, even including large container ships, smaller Coast Guard cutters, and sleek fast white-sailed yachts. As a high school student I rowed fours and eights on a quiet lake, where private boats were generally not allowed, and found that difficult enough; I’m impressed by the idea that you might be able to practice and compete on a rough tidal estuary while dodging barges, tugs, speedboats, and heavy wakes, all in that rough open water.
But there they were: you could see them most mornings, and sometimes in the evenings, little fleets of spindly boats low down in the water approaching or departing the boat sheds past Park Street or rowing smartly towards Coast Guard Island. You could sometimes hear the coxes yelling time or commands, and the coaches using megaphones from the little powerboats keeping up to the side. I used to sometimes stand on Park Street Bridge for a while just watching them pass below or disappear into the distance.
And, of course, I took a whole bunch of photos over the years. This one’s probably my favourite: one of the small fleet of single-person sculls gliding below me as I stood on the Park Street Bridge, and as the sculler rested before heading for the sheds. I get dinged a bit for this one, especially for the way the hull and rower are not centered, particularly vertically — but then how else to get the ripples from the oar blades? And besides, I like that off-centeredness (if nothing else, it leads you on downwards…). And I like the green water and the red on the rower — and the overall lack of blue, despite this being a water view. But, of course, I like it because it shows the sort of activity you probably wouldn’t guess happens much on such a busy industrial waterway.
