An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion. Oars have a flat blade at one end. Oarsmen grasp the oar at the other end. The difference between oars and paddles are that paddles are held by the paddler, and are not connected with the vessel. Oars generally are connected to the vessel by means of rowlocks or tholes which transmit the applied force to the boat. In this system (known as a second class lever) the water is the fulcrum.

Oarsmen generally face the stern of the vessel, reach as far as they can towards the stern, and insert the blade of their oar in the water. As they lean back, towards the vessel's bow, the blade of their oars sweeps the water towards the stern, providing forward thrust - see lever.

For thousands of years vessels were powered either by sails, or the mechanical work of oarsmen, or paddlers. Some ancient vessels were propelled by either oars or sail, depending on the speed and direction of the wind (see galley).

Construction

Oars have traditionally been made of wood. The form is a long shaft (or loom) with a flat blade on the end. Where the oar connects to the boat there is a "collar" which stops the oar slipping past the rowlock. Oars usually have a handle, which may be a material sleeve or alternatively a shape carved to fit the hands.

Oars used for transportation

The oars used for transportation come in a variety of sizes. The oars used in small dinghies or rafts can be less than 2 metres long. In classical times warships were propelled by very long oars that might have several oarsmen per oar. These oars could be more than a dozen metres long.

Oars used for competitive rowing

right|thumb|Trophy oars of the seven founding member clubs of the Remenham Club The oars used in competitive rowing are long (250–300 cm) poles with one flat end about 50 cm long and 25 cm wide, called the blade. The part of the oar the oarsman holds while rowing is called the handle. While rowing, the oars are supported by metal frames attached to the side of the boat called outriggers. Classic oars were made of wood, but modern oars are made from synthetic material, the most common being carbon fibre.

Oars used as trophies

The sport of competitive rowing has developed a peculiar tradition of using an oar as a memento of significant race wins. A 'trophy oar' is not presented at the end of the race as a more familiar precious metal cup might be, but rather given by the club, school or university that the winning crew or rower represented.

A trophy oar is a competition oar that has been painted in the club colours and has then had the details of the race signwritten on the face of the blade. The most common format would have the coat of arms or crest of the club or school positioned in the centre, with the crew names and the race details arranged around this.

Many older universities (Oxford and Cambridge would be prime examples) and their colleges have long histories of using the trophy oar and many examples are on display in club houses around the world.

In culture

The Norwegian municipalities of Fedje and Herøy have oars in their coat-of-arms.

Oars have been used to describe various animals with characteristics that closely-resemble the said rowing implement. The members of the Family Regalecidae, elongated deep-sea fishes, are called oarfish because their body shape is similar to that of an oar. The hawksbill turtle's genus of Eretmochelys is derived from the Latin root ''eretmo'', which roughly translates to ''oar''. The turtle was so-named because of the oar-like shape of its front flippers.

References

See also

Oar (sport rowing)

Sculling

Steering oar

Paddle

Category:Water sports equipment Category:Rowing Category:Marine propulsion

ca:Rem (objecte) cs:Veslo da:Åre (roning) de:Riemen (Schifffahrt) es:Remo (instrumento) fa:پارو fr:Rame (navigation) hr:Veslo it:Remo (attrezzo) he:משוט ht:Zaviron nl:Roeispaan ja:櫂 no:Åre (redskap) nn:Åre oc:rem (objècte) pt:Remo (navegação) ru:Весло simple:Oar fi:Airo sv:Åra

name	Olof Dreijer
background	solo_singer
alias	DJ Coolof, Oni Ayhun
origin	Nacka, Sweden
genre	Alternative rockElectronica
occupation	Record Producer, DJ
years active	2000–present
label	Rabid Records
associated acts	The Knife
website	Official The Knife website
notable instruments	}}

Olof Bjorn Dreijer (born 1981) is a member of the electronica duo The Knife, formed with his sister Karin Dreijer Andersson.

Although The Knife very rarely performs live concerts, Olof performs as DJ Coolof in nightclubs across Europe.

In late 2009 and early 2010 Olof has released four EPs under the pseudonym Oni Ayhun.

In late 2010 Olof released a remix of Emmanuel Jal's "kuar".

References

External links

http://www.oniayhun.com/

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:Swedish musicians

it:Olof Dreijer pt:Olof Dreijer sv:Olof Dreijer

name	Alexander "Skip" Spence
landscape	Yes
background	solo_singer
birth name	Alexander Lee Spence
alias	Skip Spence
born	April 18, 1946 Windsor, Ontario, Canada
died	April 16, 1999Santa Cruz, California, USA
children	Aaron Dean Spence Adam Paul Spence Omar Orion Spence Heather Victoria Moon Spence (Nuez)
instrument	Drums, Guitar
genre	Rock, Psychedelic Folk, Outsider music
occupation	Singer, Songwriter
years active	1965–1971; sporadically to 1999 (his death)
label	Columbia, Sundazed
associated acts	Quicksilver Messenger ServiceJefferson AirplaneMoby Grape
notable instruments	}}

Alexander Lee "Skip" Spence (April 18, 1946 – April 16, 1999) was a Canadian-born musician and singer-songwriter. He was co-founder of Moby Grape, and played guitar with them until 1969. He released one solo album, 1969's ''Oar'', and then largely withdrew from the music industry. He had started his career as a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and was the drummer on Jefferson Airplane's debut album, ''Jefferson Airplane Takes Off''. He has been described on the Allmusic website as "one of psychedelic rock's brightest lights"; however, his career was plagued by drug addictions coupled with mental health problems, and he has been described by a biographer as a man who "neither died young nor had a chance to find his way out."

History

Early life: 1946–1965

Alexander "Skip" Spence was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1946. His father was a machinist. The family relocated to San Jose, California in the late 1950s, based on his father finding work in the aircraft industry. At the age of ten, Spence was given his first guitar by his parents.

Music career: 1966–1969

Spence was a guitarist in an early line-up of Quicksilver Messenger Service before Marty Balin recruited him to be the drummer for Jefferson Airplane. After one album with Jefferson Airplane, their debut ''Jefferson Airplane Takes Off'', he left to co-found Moby Grape, once again as a guitarist.

During the recording session of Moby Grape's second album, ''Wow'', in 1968, Spence attempted to break down a bandmate's hotel room door with a fire axe, while under the influence of LSD. Spence's deterioration in New York and the "fire axe incident" are described by bandmate Jerry Miller as follows: "Skippy changed radically when we were in New York. There were some people there that were into harder drugs and a harder lifestyle, and some very weird shit. And so he kind of flew off with those people. Skippy kind of disappeared for a little while. Next time we saw him, he had cut off his beard, and was wearing a black leather jacket, with his chest hanging out, with some chains and just sweating like a son of a gun. I don't know what the hell he got a hold of, man, but it just whacked him. And the next thing I know, he axed my door down in the Albert Hotel. They said at the reception area that this crazy guy had held an axe to the doorman's head."

As described by bandmate Peter Lewis, it appears that both Jerry Miller and bandmade Don Stevenson were targets of Spence: "We had to do (the album) in New York because the producer (David Rubinson) wanted to be with his family. So we had to leave our families and spend months at a time in hotel rooms in New York City. Finally I just quit and went back to California. I got a phone call after a couple of days. They'd played a Fillmore East gig without me, and Skippy took off with some black witch afterward who fed him full of acid. It was like that scene in The Doors movie. He thought he was the anti-Christ. He tried to chop down the hotel room door with a fire axe to kill Don (Stevenson) to save him from himself. He went up to the 52nd floor of the CBS building where they had to wrestle him to the ground. And Rubinson pressed charges against him. They took him to The Tombs (and then to Bellevue) and that's where he wrote ''Oar''. When he got out of there, he cut that album in Nashville. And that was the end of his career. They shot him full of Thorazine for six months. They just take you out of the game."

During his six months in Bellevue, Spence was diagnosed with schizophrenia. On the day of his release, he drove a motorcycle, and as the urban myth goes (and not true according to his wife), dressed in only his pajamas, directly to Nashville to record his only solo album, with no other musicians appearing on it, the now-classic psychedelic/folk album ''Oar'' (1969, Columbia Records).

Decline: 1970–1999

Spence continued to have minor involvement in later Moby Grape projects and reunions. He contributed to ''20 Granite Creek'' (1971) and ''Live Grape'' (1978), though his bandmates always included at least one of his songs on group recordings, irrespective of whether he was capable of performing with the group at the time. He had been similarly remembered by Jefferson Airplane, whereby his song "My Best Friend" was included on the group's definitive ''Surrealistic Pillow'' album (1967), despite his departure from the group.

Due to his deteriorating state and notwithstanding that he was no longer functioning in the band, Spence was supported by Moby Grape band members for extended periods. Voluminous consumption of heroin and cocaine resulted in a further involuntary committal for Spence. As described by Peter Lewis, "Skippy was just hanging around. He hadn't been all there for years, because he'd been into heroin all that time. In fact he actually ODed once and they had him in the morgue in San Jose with a tag on his toe. All of a sudden he got up and asked for a glass of water. Now he was snortin' big clumps of coke, and nothing would happen to him. We couldn't have him around because he'd be pacing the room, describing axe murders. So we got him a little place of his own. He had a little white rat named Oswald that would snort coke too. He'd never washed his dishes, and he'd try to get these little grammar school girls to go into the house with him. He was real bad. One of the parents finally called the cops, and they took him to the County Mental Health Hospital in Santa Cruz. Where they immediately lost him, and he turned up days later in the women's ward."

Mental illness, drug addiction and alcoholism thus prevented Spence from sustaining a career in the music industry. Much of his life was spent in third party care, as a ward of the State of California, and either homeless or in transient accommodations in his later years. He remained in and around San Jose and Santa Cruz, California. Peter Lewis regularly visited Spence during the latter years of his life: "The last five years I'd go up‚ he lived in a trailer up there‚ Capitola. I used to hang around with him; we'd spend the weekends together. But he just basically kind of hit the...he was helpless in a way in terms of being able to define anything or control his feelings."

As one of his four children, son Omar Spence, recalls, "When I saw my dad, it broke my heart. ...There were moments of clarity when he was genius smart, and then he'd wander off having a conversation with himself. Here's a homeless guy that most people would walk past and pity, and he'd say, 'I've been working on a song', and he'd scratch out some barre chords and musical notes on a napkin."

In 1994, he participated in a music program for the mentally ill, sponsored by the City of San Jose. Two years later, in 1996, he was commissioned to write a song for the ''The X-Files'' soundtrack, ''Songs In The Key of X;'' though not used, it was included on the ''More Oar'' tribute record as "Land of the Sun".

Death

Spence died in 1999 from lung cancer, two days before his 53rd birthday. ''More Oar: A Tribute To The Skip Spence Album'', an album featuring contributions from Robert Plant, Tom Waits, The Durocs and Beck, among others, was released a few weeks after his death. Prior to its release, the CD was played for Spence at the hospital, in his final stages before death. Spence is interred at Soquel Cemetery in Santa Cruz county.

Legacy

Spence has been described on the Allmusic website as "one of psychedelia's brightest lights". Spence wrote "Omaha" for Moby Grape's first album which ''Rolling Stone Magazine'' listed in 2008 as one of the 100 greatest guitar songs of all time.

In June, 2008, a Skip Spence Tribute Concert was held in Santa Cruz. The concert featured Spence's son Omar, who has sung with various configurations of Moby Grape in recent years. Omar Spence, singing his father's songs, was backed by the Santa Cruz White Album Ensemble, with Dale Ockerman and Tiran Porter, both formerly of the Doobie Brothers, and both of whom have played with various members of Moby Grape in several bands over the past three decades. Keith Graves of Quicksilver Messenger Service played drums. Peter Lewis joined the group onstage for the finale. An additional Skip Spence tribute concert was held in October, 2008.

Discography

With Jefferson Airplane

''Jefferson Airplane Takes Off'' (RCA, 1966)

With Moby Grape

;Original albums

''Moby Grape'' (Columbia, 1967)

''Wow/Grape Jam'' (Columbia, 1968)

''Moby Grape '69'' (Columbia, 1969)

''20 Granite Creek'' (Reprise, 1971)

''Live Grape'' (Akarma, 1978)

''The Place and the Time'' (Sundazed, 2009)

''Moby Grape Live'' (Sundazed, 2010)

;Compilations ''Omaha'' (Harmony, 1971)

''Great Grape'' (Columbia, 1972)

''Murder In My Heart'' (Edsel, 1986)

''Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape'' (Columbia/Legacy, 1993)

''Crosstalk: The Best of Moby Grape'' (Sony International, 2004)

''Listen My Friends! The Best of Moby Grape'' (Columbia/Legacy, 2007)

Solo

''Oar'' Columbia (1969)

''Land of the Sun'' (Sundazed, 1999) Single release.

''Oar'' (Sundazed, 1999) Remastered and expanded version of 1969 release.

Tribute Album

''More Oar: A Tribute to the Skip Spence Album'' (Birdman, 1999)

References

Category:1946 births Category:1999 deaths Category:Canadian rock guitarists Category:American rock guitarists Category:Canadian rock drummers Category:American rock drummers Category:Outsider music Category:Psych folk musicians Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:American singer-songwriters Category:Canadian rock singers Category:American rock singers Category:Canadian male singers Category:American male singers Category:Musicians from Windsor, Ontario Category:People from Santa Cruz, California Category:People from San Jose, California Category:Musicians from California Category:People with schizophrenia Category:Deaths from lung cancer Category:Moby Grape members Category:Quicksilver Messenger Service members Category:Jefferson Airplane members Category:Cancer deaths in California Category:Psychedelic rock musicians

de:Skip Spence fr:Skip Spence it:Skip Spence nn:Skip Spence pt:Skip Spence fi:Skip Spence