The calf of leg where, at the end of a stroke, it made contact with the end of the sliding seat track and the first sign of a hole being dug may not have been noticeable but it soon became a raw spot. And once started any pad or tape applied would neither do any good or stay very long in place with the continuous pounding, perspiration and splashing water. Any scab resulting from healing over a weekend would be quickly be torn off and complete healing could be forced to wait until termination of rowing or a combination of corrective measures. Working upward, the next vulnerable point is the buttocks. A firm seating on the sliding seat is important to a good rowing position and rocking back and forth with each stroke makes that difficult and uneven even though the seat is dished somewhat to conform to the body and hold the tow together as intended.
Few rowers have a lot of flesh as padding and the major support is the skin.
This is aggravated by wet trunks, twisting to correct balance slipping to the wrong position on the seat and the best condition, seldom attained for long, is slightly moistened cloth that will neither slide nor irritate. Because so much effort is transmitted by the back, most rowers have occasions of painful back muscles for no reason other than the strain of usage. This however, have means of correction in strengthening exercise and heat or massage though time is a most demanding corrective factor. A precept of rowing is that only when the oar is the water are there and forces that will move a shell, therefore the reach, the moving seat and the layback. At the reach with the oar feathered the hands are low and vulnerable to damage by contact with gunwale, ribs or braces if the feathered blade should catch the top of a wave or the shell take a sudden lurch.