Chez Boileau

23/09/2021

Congratulations Mark on a convincing win (around 27 seconds) in the Thanks for coming back for more training on the Fantastic to see your trophy and have it put to such good use (Clearing deposits left by )

23/08/2021

Last post forgot to add the photos of our cycle destination, the small medieval village of (only 20km as a crow flies south of ) much from the 13th C. We stopped for a coffee at a café & the top photo is taken from the door of the church (Église Saint-Felicien d’Issigeac), built over 40 years from 1488, with restoration work carried out (due to damage during the in the region) at the start of the 19th C. After the Edict of Nantes (April 1598) until the revocation (in 1685), this wonderful church was “occupied”/shared/alternated every other week, between the Catholics and Protestants of the village and surrounding area. Complicated for the priests/clergy perhaps? Or not? Interesting solution… wonder how many other churches practiced this? Let me know if you know of any… or if this was indeed a common practice…?

23/08/2021

First post in over a year. Just did one on my handle. I have had a few visitors for some gentle & over the last couple of weeks. Lots to sort out. This week we have the pleasure of former GB 🇬🇧 and twice Jon Tompkins being with us. The first photo is of the and then of our cycle today to and to the at

16/05/2020

https://chezboileau.com/2020/05/15/locked-down-in-the-ashram/

No sports-oriented blog should be without its Coronovirus Lock Down story, so here is mine. Back in 2019 I had booked in for the month-long Advanced Yoga Teacher Training Course at the famous Sivan…

09/04/2020

Sadly all courses and training at ChezB are cancelled at the moment... watch this space...

One scullers has been out on the water... and has posted a blog about it, but he is not in England, France, nor the USA, but the Czech Republic where their lockdown is just coming to a transition point... and people are being allowed out to do things like ... go sculling, with clubs re-opening on a limited basis... and he has posted an important blog entry.

Rowsandall (if you do not know him... is a data lover. He digests and then presents data (beautifully) on a regular basis... normally to do with the NK Empower Oarlock/Speedcoach data - something I also have a huge interest in) has posted a very thought-provoking blog about the difference between Portugal and the Czech republic in data for the Corona Virus (same size of population & same number of cases at the start).

There are obviously cultural differences and differences in population densities, which would affect the data, but the data is still an interesting comparison.

After watching the embedded video (＃Masks4All) the common sense approach of wearing a mask in public seems like an obvious cautionary step to take, so long as everyone does it... Perhaps the UK, France, USA etc... should all follow suit and make it essential wear when in public...

Have a look at his data, and thoughts, and the video, and let me know what you think...

Japan and Korea have high population densities (with Tokyo being the largest conurbation in the world)... and yet... their cases are comparatively limited and work continues is Korea (where they are tracking cases using mobile phone information ... something less possible here - there mobiles work on all OVER... INCLUDING IN subways in Korea... not so in most other countries!).

Also compliance is a big issue... people tend to follow government instructions Japan (and to a slightly lesser degree... but still more than many European countries in Korea) and and the Czech Republic... possibly less so in England, France and the USA... and Portugal...

Have a look and see what you think.

https://blog.rowsandall.com/2020/04/08/maiden-voyage-in-a-socially-distance-world/

AND HOPE WE CAN ALL GET OUT SCULLING SOON.

Keep well & safe... and as Rowsandall suggests on his blog... facemasks are a good idea... if everyone is doing it... and if we can get people to do this (hard in the UK where last weekend the police had to break up 600 parties just in Manchester alone)...

Lockdown status update So the last time I wrote was on March 31. Here is how the number of positive tests developed. The source is . The two charts are the same. Just that the right hand side is p…

26/03/2020

Here is a recently published profile of Sue Appelboom, who coached a fantastic camp last summer, while also giving lectures on nutrition, the hormonal and nervous systems, and food as fuel.

We shall be planning her next trip out once travel restrictions have been eased and we can organise a suitable group.

Hope this finds you all well & that you are keeping safe and isolated! Enjoy this good tribute to her sculling career.

Rowing biography of Sue Appelboom who was the GB lightweight single sculler in 1991, 1995 & 1996. She won the Lt1x at Henley Women’s for ten consecutive years.

24/03/2020

In June 2019 Sagar Sen came to Bergerac to help me measure and display breathing, looking at different breathing methods in sculling (one popular type of rowing I shall actually refer to as "Sen Breathing" and shall explain these in a later blog on www.chezboileau.com ). Here he was trying out a Nelo single scull while thinking about his breathing at the catch and finish. Hope to have him back for some sculling with yoga once the corona virus issue is ... over ... will this be after a vaccine for older people is in circulation? Perhaps... hope you are all well...

24/03/2020

Just wrote a blog review
https://chezboileau.com/2020/03/18/the-problem-of-bounce-a-review-of-the-nelo-single-scull/
And put it online on Instagram making me realise that I had not posted anything on my ChezB Instagram account since the event
This review highlights the issue of bounce and how this boat increases awareness of it.
I shall post some for rowers and related comments on the soon.
Keep well and I can not wait ASAP Ali B