Starboard 3: Origin

My name is Patrick Jackson. I am the founder of Starboard3. Starboard side 3 seat is the name of my spot on the Oklahoma State Rowing team. Rowing taught me a lot about team work. Everyone pulling together. At S3 we take the essence of rowing into how we coach teams.

At OSU I sat in 3 seat in the Men’s heavyweight sweep. I learned from each member of my team about life, leadership, and teamwork. The bow was Scotty: he was the only person who see the rest of the boat. Scotty is a Marine, he was the encourager and was hilarious. In the 2 seat was Dave: Dave was the artist, a writer, the inspiration, and he would lead us in singing together during the long practices. I have never seen anyone who worked out as hard as Dave, he worked so hard that he vomited…. often, I was the 3 seat. I was the person with the bad form, who splashed way to much, but they allowed me to be on the team anyway. Doug was the stroke. He sat in front of me, he kept the rhythm and had the best form. He was also very well liked by about half the members of the Cowgirls rowing team, with whom we worked out. The coxswain was Lisa. Lisa was short but she ruled us with a rod of iron. She learned the skills of rowing and taught us how to keep together and how to keep getting better. She was the leader who took care of us and we listed and followed her. Our shell (the boat we rowed) was name Instant Karma.

I have not rowed in a shell in years, but I can still feel the spot where the oar rubbed against me callouses. I can still sense where on my foot the foot stretcher anchored my foot to the rig. But these psudo physical reminders pale in comparison to the interactions I truly remember. The early morning, the long drives to competitions, the wins, the losses, and the celebrations in victory or defeat. This is the team that showed me what a team really is, and although it has been a 20 years since I was in a boat with them. I am still on a team with them.