Summer River

August 19, 1999

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Summer River

By Alvin Powell
Contributing Writer

With the Weld Boat House perched sedataely in the background, Ramon Morenes, a summer student from Spain, looks right at home as he relaxes with some water and some reading material on the less populated side of the Charles River.

On the Boston side of the mighty river, a bicyclist and a jogger prepare to avoid colliding with each other ‹ and any number of water fowl. The Weeks Memorial Bridge and Dunster Tower make for a perfectly picturesque background.

Matissa Hollister, a Ph.D. student in sociology and social policy at the Kennedy School of Government, reaches for a Frisbee while playing catch with a friend beside Memorial Drive. Photos by Jon Chase

Through the summer’s bright, steamy days, a cool ribbon of water calls to nearby Harvard, drawing people from blazing concrete sidewalks and the steaming asphalt streets.

Some people seek out the water because it soothes them, easing the stresses and strains of everyday life. For others, it’s a liquid playground — a place for rowing and sailing — or a placid backdrop for games of Frisbee, a vigorous jog, or a stint of rollerblading.

"People come down to the river bank to sit in the sun. They bring towels and Frisbees. It’s a great way to get away from class," said Daniel Boyne, recreational sculling coach at the Weld Boathouse. "For us, it’s one of our busiest seasons. We get more people down here learning how to row than at any other season."

Over at the Harvard Sailing Center, located on the Charles River’s lower basin — below the Massachusetts Avenue bridge — Assistant Sailing Coach Bernhard Noack says he gets busier when the sailing teams come in the fall and spring, but that summer is a busy time for recreational sailors.

Summer is also a time when the flashier boats, like the center’s three Lasers, are not being used by sailing teams, so they are available to recreational sailors.

Noack said summer sailors are mainly Summer School students, graduate students, faculty, and staff.

Further upriver, on the grassy bank near the Harvard Business School, student Ramon Morenes is preparing to return to Spain after his Harvard Summer School courses end this month. Morenes, who said he wanted to make the most of his Harvard experience, spent much of the summer pounding the books.

An unfortunate side effect, however, is a pale skin tone.

"I was studying all morning, and after lunch I decided to come here," Morenes said. "When I go back to Spain, I’ll be so white and everyone there will be tanned."

While people flock to the river banks, few venture into the river.

Water quality in the Charles has been a concern for decades. Recent years, however, have seen lower pollution levels. In 1995, the section of the river that flows by Harvard met state swimming standards only 19 percent of the time and boating standards just 35 percent of the time. This year, the river has met state boating standards 72 percent of the time and swimming standards 94 percent of the time, according to the Charles River Watershed Association.

That still doesn’t mean people are eager to swim in the Charles. One recent Monday, Nicole Christoff, a Summer School student and incoming Harvard senior, watched dubiously from the Weld Boat House dock as boat house employees fished an overturned rower out of the water.

"I don’t want to fall in the water," said Christoff, a government concentrator who admitted she was a bit nervous about her first time in a rowing scull.

"I think I’m more nervous than most people," Christoff said. "Everyone in my family has no balance and no athletic skill."

Despite that, Christoff said she wanted to get on the water this summer because she’ll have graduated by next summer.

"This is my last summer here and I’ve never sculled, so this is my last chance," she said.

Harvard is helping keep boaters abreast of river conditions. The Weld Boat House is one of nine riverfront boathouses that are participating in an initiative by the Charles River Watershed Association in which they fly a blue flag when the river meets the minimum state cleanliness standards necessary for boating and a red flag when the river does not meet that minimum. The Association tests the water daily for fecal coliform bacteria Monday through Friday.

The blue flag was flying the day Christoff took her first spin in the scull.

The Weld Boat House sees 50 to 60 people on a typical summer day, Boyne said. Some are Summer School students from other countries who have heard of Harvard’s rowing tradition.

"Students come from other countries where they don’t have the opportunity to try the sport," Boyne said. "Harvard’s name is synonymous with the sport of rowing."

Boyne said hot days really bring people out, which is a bit ironic, because the exertion becomes more difficult with the heat.

"We get the most people down here when we get blazing weather, when I would never go out," Boyne said.

Up the river a bit and across Memorial Drive, a couple of doctoral students tossed a Frisbee in J.F.K. Park. But it’s more than a summer lark for them.

The two play ultimate Frisbee — a cross between Frisbee and football or soccer — competitively for area club teams. This day, though, they were just taking a break from their research work.

"Usually, we’re inside the courtyard [playing Frisbee], but we needed a bigger space," said Joe Swingle, a doctoral student in sociology. "We work on different throws."

Swingle’s throwing partner, Matissa Hollister, is a doctoral student in sociology at Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in social policy at the Kennedy School of Government.

She’s also an ultimate Frisbee player on a Boston-area women’s club team that plays nationally, traveling to different cities to compete.

"[Boston] has to be one of the best cities [for ultimate Frisbee]," Swingle said.

Downriver near the lower Charles basin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is Harvard’s Sailing Center. Members can get lessons, or just take out a boat from 1:30 to 7:30 p.m. from Tuesday through Saturday. Unlike the Weld Boat House, which closes for the summer Aug. 20, the Sailing Center stays open until Nov. 1, when it closes for the winter, according to Noack.

Summer memberships, however, run through Sept. 15.

"It’s pretty mellow down here," Noack said. "I like coaching competitive sailing. So even though it’s more intense in the fall and spring, I like it better."

Noack said the lower Charles basin is a good place for beginners because it is contained. If something goes awry, a struggling sailor can’t be blown out to sea. In addition, the swirling winds in the basin provide a lot of practice in different conditions.

For practice or relaxation, the Charles is there, waiting for folks to squeeze enough time from their schedules to take that turn in a boat, that jog, that bike ride that they’ve been promising themselves.

"It’s definitely one of the most valuable natural resource assets of Boston for all the many groups who use it," Boyne said.