How to Choose the Best Rowing Location

To choose the best rowing location, start with the nearest calm, sheltered water that has a club, coaching and safety cover. The best location is the one you can reach twice a week and that suits your level, whatever any ranking says.

Start with your experience

Calm, sheltered water suits beginners. Wind, waves, currents and busy traffic all make rowing harder and riskier, so newer rowers need a club and coaching close by. A quiet stretch with little flow lets you work on balance and technique without fighting the conditions.

As you gain confidence, add one challenge at a time: a bit of current, a longer stretch or some chop. Do it with others. Experienced rowers often choose places where other crews train, because there is company, coaching and safety cover. See what you need to know before getting in a rowing boat.

Compare the type of water

Water	What it offers	Watch for	Best for
River	Scenery, a defined course, often a club stretch	Flow, bends, weirs, boat traffic, flooding after rain	Most club rowers
Lake or reservoir	Open space for long steady rows	Wind and waves can build quickly, few places to land	Long steady sessions in calm weather
Canal	Sheltered, straight	Narrow, bridges, walkers and other users	Short technique outings
Sea or tidal water	Challenge and variety	Tides, swell, cold water, needs specialist boats	Experienced rowers with local guidance

Our guide to different types of bodies of water to row on goes into more detail, and tips when rowing with the wind explains how exposed water behaves.

Check the flow rules before you commit

A river that is perfect in June can be closed for weeks in winter, so ask how often that happens. On the River Thames, the Environment Agency publishes current river conditions. Red boards advise all boats not to navigate, and yellow boards advise unpowered boats not to.

Clubs often go further with their own limits. Henley Rowing Club’s water safety plan stops Learn to Row at 35 m3/s of flow, measured at Reading, and stops rowing from its own landing at 100 m3/s. Ask any club you visit how it sets its limits. A clear answer is a good sign.

Do the travel sum

Pick a place you can reach regularly. A great location 90 minutes away costs 3 hours of driving per outing, or 6 hours a week for two outings. A plainer stretch 30 minutes away costs 2 hours for the same two outings, which leaves 4 hours to spend rowing or sleeping.

Check parking, launching, changing and storage while you are there.

Then check the length of water. This example assumes a steady 3 metres per second, about 2:47 per 500m:

Stretch of clear water	Rowing time before you turn	Good for
1km	About 6 minutes	Technique and short pieces
2km	About 11 minutes	Mixed sessions
5km	About 28 minutes	Long steady rows

Match your equipment

Your boat type shapes where you can row. A single scull needs more space and calmer water than a coxed four on a regatta course. If you own a boat, check transport and storage, and read about the benefits of owning your own rowing shell. If you do not, you are limited to places where a club can lend you one, which also lets you try different boats.

Match your training

• Long steady sessions need uninterrupted water, so look for 5km or more.
• Short, hard work can be done on a shorter, measured course.
• Technique focus suits calm water of any length.
• Lighter weeks are a good time to explore somewhere scenic.

In winter, some stretches become unrowable because of flood, strong flow or ice, and daylight is short. Rowing in the dark is usually discouraged, and clubs set their own rules on lights. Keep an indoor option such as the erg for those weeks.

Talk to the local club

Clubs know the water, the hazards and the rules. Joining one gives you boats, coaching and company. See rowing clubs in the UK and the best rivers in the UK for rowing. If you travel with your own boat, contact the local club first about launching and traffic patterns. At Henley, for example, the rule is to keep to the right, which means the Berks bank going downstream and the Bucks bank going upstream. Every stretch has its own pattern.

A 9-point checklist

1. Is the water suitable for your experience?
2. Is there coaching or supervision?
3. Are there safety rules and rescue cover?
4. Can you reach it twice a week?
5. Is there storage and launching?
6. What are the local hazards, such as weirs, boat traffic and tides?
7. What are the traffic rules, such as which side of the river to keep to?
8. Is it open all year, and what happens after heavy rain?
9. Is the stretch long enough for the session you want?

If you row somewhere new, tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.