That’s not to say he wasn’t pleased with instant success. Like a good pupil, Vinge took his rowing coach’s instructions to heart and took his daily independent workouts seriously. “The time (Vinge) spent training in a (single scull) has helped him understand the dynamics and feel for the water,” McDiarmid said. “This has helped him make the technical changes needed to fit into the four.” As a teenager from Fernie, Vinge made the University of B.C. Thunderbirds’ track and field program, and was 11th