Why We Row Boats Backward
(and some other interesting rowing facts)

The reason most Americans row backward today is because this is the way pre-industrial English river men rowed their boats. Rear facing rowing was taken up as sport by English university students, then exported to America. Sliding seats and other improvements were made. Eventually rules were set down, and rear facing rowing became an established sport. One of the rules is that you must row facing backwards.

Rowing, as an established sport, gets publicity. People see athletes on television rowing backwards, and if they live near a rowing club, they see club members rowing this way. People who row for recreation or exercise end up imitating this backward rowing style because it is what they are exposed to.

Forward facing rowing
In some parts of the world, rowing facing forwards is the prevailing style. The gondolas of Venice are a good example. They are rowed facing forward, standing up, and pushing on a single oar. The boats have developed to suit that style. Gondolas are stable enough to stand up in and their hulls are shaped with a sideways curve (like a banana) to compensate for the one-sided power application. Asian river men row their boats facing forward. Some people "scull" their boats using a single oar off the transom, waging it back and for forth like a fish's tail. Pre-industrial American fishermen used to row their boats facing forward, standing up, and push rowing with a pair of oars. This is sometimes referred to as the fisherman's stroke. Present day sailors sometimes push row their dinghies so they can see where they are going in crowded harbors.

So called "bow facing oars" have been around for more than a century. These are two piece segmented oars with a kind of hinge in the middle and a reversing mechanism. These are intended to replace conventional oar-on-gunwale oars on wide beamed boats and allow the rower to face forward and row with a pulling motion.

The above rowing systems use oars which are levers of the second order (with the oarlock in the middle of the oar). This means that to get forward facing motion you need to push on the oars or use a hinged reversing mechanism.

The FrontRower system uses oars which are levers of the third order (with the oarlock on the end and the handle in the middle). This gives forward facing motion with a pulling stroke (similar to paddling).
 
Sliding Seats
The sliding seat was a convenient way for early sit-down rowers to get their leg power into the stroke during races. But it is not very efficient. This method involves clamping down your feet and moving your body back and forth on the sliding seat. You can do the same thing more efficiently by sitting on a fixed seat and moving your feet back and forth—this results in a lot less mass moving around in the boat and reversing direction two times every stroke.

Sliding Riggers
There was a short period in rowing history when competitive rowers used fixed seat boats with sliding riggers. This is more efficient than using a sliding seat. The rowers moved the outriggers (and the outrigger-mounted oarlocks) with their feet. Peter Michael Kolbe used this method to win the men's singles at the 1981 World Championships in Munich. In the 1982 World Championships five boats in the men's finals had fixed seats and sliding riggers. By 1983, all six finalists used fixed seat boats with sliding riggers.
 
After 1983, moving riggers were ruled ineligible for competition. So competitive rowers went back to sliding seats.

The FrontRower system uses moving pedals to develop leg power. This simple but effective method has even less mass moving around in the boat than the sliding riggers. Of course this violates the rules, but just about everything about the FrontRower breaks the rules.

Paddling
Full body rowing is inherently more powerful than paddling because it uses more and larger muscles.  It is also better exercise for the same reason.  Recreational paddling is more about having fun than it is about getting a good workout.  The forward facing position lends itself to exploring new territory and the visual enjoyment of seeing where you are going.

The forward facing position of the FrontRower gives you all the visual advantages of recreational paddling, and the full body stroke gives you all the power and exercise quality of rear facing sliding seat rowing.