Slow Rows

Slow Rows is a quiet place to row.

Sit on your rowing machine, put on your Quest and drift down a river that nobody has rowed before. There are no scores, no races and no coaches. Just you, the water, the oars and a landscape that changes as you go.

How it works Slow Rows follows your head. As you slide back and forth with each stroke, your boat moves through the water: row harder and you glide faster, rest and you coast to a stop. It was tuned against real rowing on a WaterRower, but it works with any rowing machine or ergometer, as long as you sit on it and move as you row. Nothing connects to the machine and you don’t need controllers. (Rowing data on the machine itself is not read.)

Five landscapes, each its own world

Meadows: slow green water, reeds, swans, ducks and herons

Wooded valley: autumn leaves, stone-lined banks, tea-coloured water

Fjord: tall dark cliffs, deep clear water, and whales far off

Limestone gorge: pale walls, echoing water, stones that fall now and then

Red canyon: layered rock, warm light and a lonely wren

Every river is generated fresh. Bridges and tunnels appear along the way, some rivers narrow to a tight channel, and fish shimmer beneath the surface and leap now and then.

Time and weather Row at dawn, noon, sunset or under a night sky full of stars and the Milky Way. Choose clear skies or mist. Birdsong, frogs, owls and crickets follow the hour.

Music that follows you Soft ambient music rises gently as you row and settles when you stop. Or