The Warwick Rowers: uncovered

If you haven’t heard about them yet, you will soon. For seven years, their infamous naked calendar has raised an incredible amount for charity. Speaking more about the calendar and the cause that they fundraise for, the Warwick Rowers sit down with Features to talk nudity, cheeky Viallis and fighting homophobia in sport.

Photos: Warwick Boat Club

The Boar: For those who are new to Warwick or haven’t been lucky enough to get to know you – who are you and what do you do?

Tom: We are the Warwick Men’s rowing team and we spend most of the year rowing in races across the country and training for these races. However for the past seven years, every summer we’ve stripped off to make a naked calendar to raise money for our Boat Club and Sports Allies which fights homophobia in sport. Year on year, it’s got bigger and bigger thanks to the gay community getting behind the calendar, to the extent that last year we had an American tour, which generated half a billion page views for media articles about our trip.

Boar: The outreach programme that you fundraise for ‘Sport Allies’ works to help tackle homophobia and help young people. What motivated you to initiate this programme and why should everyone else be supporting it too?

Lucas: In the early years of the Warwick Rowers calendar, we were supporting a range of different charities. When our calendar took off due to the support we’d gained from the gay community, we decided that we wanted to give something back, by focusing on combating bullying caused by homophobia in sports, especially in team sports. Sport Allies has been in existence since 2014 and its goal is to create a world where sport is a leader in celebrating difference. Research commissioned by Sport Allies shows that currently team sports enforce a heteronormative culture in which gender stereotypes force people into boxes that aren’t the right fit. A lot of the LGBTQ+ community and also other heterosexual men who don’t feel like they respond to those standards are less likely to join team sports and more likely to experience bullying for not being “manly” enough. Sport should be for everybody, and that’s why everyone else should be supporting Sport Allies.

Photos: Warwick Boat Club

Boar: Warwick has a lot of sports clubs and also has a strong LGBT+ community but do you think there is enough done to act against homophobia not only on the sports pitch (or on the water) but outside of it too? If not, what more do you think needs to be done?

Will: Personally I don’t think enough has been done at any sports club until all LGBTQ+ individuals who wish to partake in sport can do so freely and without prejudice from other members of the society. You do often hear words such as ‘gay’ and other sexuality related remarks being thrown around circling in the Copper Rooms and on campus – until behaviour such as this stops I believe there somewhat is a barrier to LGBTQ+ members being actively involved in sports teams. We do hope the work we are doing with the calendar and the message we are spreading discourages this kind of behaviour, and we encourage other sports clubs to get involved with Sport Allies.

Boar: The idea of doing a naked calendar, where did it come from and is there anyone you can specifically mention for bringing the idea up?

Tristan: The calendar was originally started by the boat club’s ex-president Chris Primett and current calendar producer and photographer Angus Malcolm. The two met when Chris wanted some photos taken for his modelling portfolio, then they got talking about rowing and how poor the club was at that stage, and a naked calendar seemed like a good way to raise funds! Since then Angus Malcolm has really been the driving force of the calendar. As the only member of the project who never graduates he’s overseen the growth over the seven years and works full time to make it a success, with help from various members of the club.

Photos: Warwick Boat Club

Boar: In general, on campus do people ever recognise you as ‘that guy from the calendar’?

Tristan: Strangely enough, I’ve been recognised twice on the tube in London, once on the streets in LA, and once at home in Cornwall, but never on campus. I think as it’s a project run by Warwick students it’s not a big deal to be seen around campus, so no one mentions it.

Boar: Obviously you’ve got a pretty large fan base – who makes up the majority of it?

Tristan: We’ve been incredibly lucky to have a lot of support from the gay community, who really helped the project grow in the early years. Nowadays we’re about 50/50 between male and female support of all ages. We’ve recently discovered that a large number of heterosexual males have started following our project, as they’re interested in the friendship we have as a team. This is something we’ve focused on in this year’s calendar, as we believe that the bonds that can be made through sport should be open to all, regardless of gender or sexuality and that men shouldn’t have to abide by gender stereotypes. That’s why our statement this year is: ‘This is for everyone’.

Photos: Warwick Boat Club

Boar: You’ve just returned from your US tour, how was that?

Tristan: The US tour was a great way for us to meet a lot of our main supporters, and to gain exposure in the American media. At the end of each day you had to sit back and actually realise what you’d done that day. Be it working at Buzzfeed’s office for a day to being on the Andy Cohen show, to meeting Kim Kardashian and then lifting up Kris Jenner for a photo, the US tour was a truly unforgettable experience. We were able to meet a lot of our key supporters who were obviously unable to make UK events, and also talked at Princeton University to their scholarship athletes about embracing the message of Sport Allies. All in all, a very successful trip.

Photos: Warwick Boat Club

Boar: Do you feel like you need to work extra hard to keep yourself in shape? Should I never expect to see any of you having a sneaky Viallis?

Will: We all train hard 12-13 times a week so it’s not too difficult preparing for the calendar. You’ll always catch me with a cheeky Viallis after a night out – I have to hit that 4000 calories a day somehow! Three days before the calendar I did try as eat about 1000 calories a day – worst few days of my life! Also turning up hungover and dehydrated was actually a good strategy.

Boar: Last question, where can I buy a calendar and how much are they?

Tom: You can get the calendar and find out more about our project at our website www.warwickrowers. org. You can also find us on Instagram (@warwick_rowers), Twitter (@naked_rowers), and Facebook (‘The Warwick Rowers Calendar’)