Concept2
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Concept2 is a manufacturer of rowing equipment. They are probably most well known for their indoor rowing machine, which can be found in most gyms and are considered the standard training machine for world-class rowers. They also manufacture oars for sculling and sweep rowing (under the name Dreissigacker). Their products are shipped worldwide. Ironically, competitive rowers never refer to the machine as an "indoor rower" but use the older name of "erg" (short for ergometer).
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[edit] History
The company was founded in 1976 by rowing brothers Dick and Pete Dreissigacker. The two brothers trialed for the American team for the 1976 Summer Olympics and whilst preparing they modified their oars with carbon fibre in an attempt to go faster. When they failed to be selected for the team they founded the company and started selling carbon fibre oars. Their first office was in the back of a bread truck until they bought a farm in Morrisville, Vermont, USA.
[edit] Oars
The Dreissigacker oars were well received by the rowing community and they quickly established themselves as one of the major players in the market. In 1991, the company came out with asymmetrical "hatchet" oar blades. These new oar blades improved a teams performance by 1 or 2% and the blades became popular so quickly that by 1992, most of the Olympic crews were using this style of oars. Many elite rowers use Concept2 oars and together with Croker oars make up the majority of oars used in international competition.
[edit] Indoor rower
In 1981, the brothers had the idea of making an indoor rowing machine (the Model A) made mainly from bicycle parts. At the time the indoor machines on the market cost $3,000 but the brothers (with help from friend Jon Williams) sold theirs for $600. The product was an instant success and has been revised over the years with the Model B (1986), Model C (1993), Model D (2003) and the Model E (2006). From inception through September 2006, the company produced and sold only one model of indoor rower at any time. That changed in September 2006 when it began selling the Model E as well as offering 2 separate upgraded versions of the Model D. Concept 2 Model E machines are typically used for indoor rowing events such as BIRC or CRASH-B.
The origin of the indoor rowers is a device to measure the power output of oarsmen/women. As such it is a class of ergometer (Greek: measuring work) hence the terms "erg" or "ergo" are used in the rowing world.
[edit] Indoor rowing rankings
The company facilitates a community of home-based rowers who maintain online logs hosted on the Concept2 web site. Their performances are ranked in real-time by the Concept2 software. The total number of meters logged in 2006 exceeded 6.5 billion, logged by over 34,000 active members—an average of over 189,000 meters per member.[citation needed] There are hundreds of clubs (e.g. Free Spirits Rowing) that rowers may affiliate to with when registering with the ranking system.
