Erin James on finding a new lease of rowing life

There were plenty of athletes racing at the 2025 World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals with experience of both classic and coastal rowing – after all, the majority of rowers will start on flat water before moving to the rougher stuff.

But few have had a 17-year-break from international representation, and come back to rowing in a new discipline after having three children. However, this is the reality for New Zealander Erin James.

James raced the coastal mixed double sculls with Matthew Dunham at the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals in Antalya, Türkiye, reaching the knockout round. Her previous race for New Zealand was in the six-seat of the women’s eight racing at the 2008 World Rowing Cup II in Lucerne, when the Kiwis finished eighth and last.

After she did not make the national team the following year, James’s mind turned to her career. She tried again to come back, but juggling rowing and work proved too difficult, so she “parked it at that point”, she explains.

She then had three children, now aged between four and a half and seven, and started to think about goals to regain fitness. So she turned to old crewmate Emma Twigg for advice.

“I said to Emma Twigg, ‘I’m keen to try that coastal thing’, just as a goal to get fit. Then one thing led to another and it kind of escalated to this,” James says.

James admits she had never entirely quit rowing, having done some “low-key masters” racing, but also erging in her garage. “Just getting back on the water made me realise how much I’d missed it and made me want to do it more and more,” she adds.

“I’d done some surfboats in the interim, so I do love the sea as well and I’m really comfortable in the waves,” James continues. However, representing her country was not initially the plan, but encouraged by 2022 women’s solos Beach Sprint Finals champion Twigg, James rocked up at the New Zealand national trials and did well enough to be selected for the double.

“I didn’t do very well in the solo, I’m no good at steering,” she says. “I’ve always been a crew boat person – never enjoyed the single in my flat water career either – so I felt really comfortable in the double and being with Matt, he’s incredible, he was able to guide me.”

James says she has learned to “never get comfortable, always expect the unexpected” in beach sprints.

“I guess it’s how quick you recover from setbacks, because that’s the only thing you can really expect in this sport. You need to get fit and strong, and hope for some luck; equally be ready to recover after something goes wrong.”

When asked if she is looking towards the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and beach sprints’ debut there, James says she is simply taking her second chance at representing New Zealand one day at a time.

“I feel really grateful that I’m in the position to be able to do it. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed being on the water,” she says. She is also appreciating being able to set an example for her children.

“It’s really cool to be able to set an example for them: like I’ve set this goal for myself, and being able to achieve it. They’ve seen me on the erg, they’ve seen me on the water training hard and being able to sacrifice things,” James adds.

She is also excited about being part of New Zealand’s development of beach sprints. A series of events, set up by Dave Vallance of West End Rowing Club, is planned and James expects more and more people will want to take part.

“It’s growing and growing, we’ve got an awesome development group and a big secondary school following, so it’s really exciting to see more and more people put their hand up and compete,” she says.

New Zealand has plenty of coastline to row on – and indeed a number of its established flat water rowing clubs row in harbours rather than on rivers or lakes. The beach sprint squad have been training near Mount Maunganui on the east coast of the North Island, at a place named ‘Shark Alley’.

“Shark Alley is perfect and it’s got a nice little wave. It can get a bit messy – it was quite reassuring to come down and see that and know that we’d done the work in that,” James says.

“Mount Maunganui is such an awesome place. If anyone’s going to New Zealand and wants to do it, go there.”