For most of the members of the blossoming Whistler Rowing Club, the regatta they travelled to in Lake Stevens, Wash., earlier this year marked the first event of its kind in which they had ever raced. Essentially everything about the event and competing in the full race venue was new to them — even the way they rowed away from a dock, instead of launching from the water the way they usually do at home in Whistler.

But you wouldn’t know that to look at their results. The six Whistler rowers brought home 10 medals from the U.S. Northwest Masters Regional Championships, in a dominating display that wowed Whistler Rowing Club co-founder and competitor Diane Ziff.

“We cleaned up, really,” Ziff said last month, later adding, “They loved it. They’re all hooked; they want to do it again.”

Last weekend (Aug. 14 and 15), they got their chance, as five club members took to the waters of the Deas Slough in Delta for the Cascadia Masters Regatta. Matched up against members of 20 clubs from 15 cities around B.C., Washington and Oregon, the Whistler rowers captured about 14 medals in singles, doubles and women’s quad races on the 1,000-metre course.

Ziff led the way by winning two gold medals, one silver and a bronze medal, while Janice Groff captured two gold and one silver medal. Jane Frazee netted another three medals, with one gold and two silvers.

The men held their own, too, as Ritchie King – another founding member of the club – captured a gold and a silver, and Greg Groff brought home silver and bronze medals from the largest masters regatta being held in western Canada this year.

Ziff, a past medallist at national and world masters rowing events, said it’s been “very rewarding” to watch the Whistler Rowing Club grow with talented and dedicated members such as these.

“When I came here three years ago, there was nobody rowing,” she said. That summer, Ziff met King and started teaching him a bit. His wife started the following year, and another couple joined in — and it started building from there, Ziff said.

The club attained official status from Rowing Canada in 2009, and now has 19 paying members.

“It’s been a very rewarding thing. People are really keen… We’re amazed at the amount of people here who are interested in rowing,” Ziff said.

So far, members have been drawn to the club without advertising or active recruitment; new recruits may have seen members out rowing on Alta Lake in the early morning hours, and have sought to get involved.

The club has been supported by the likes of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, Walsh Construction and Robert and Dagmar Hungerford, who have contributed money for rowing shells or actual boats to add to the club’s holdings. Ziff said most members train using their own shells, but the club is also starting to do some learn-to-row lessons with people who want to get involved in the sport.

Ziff’s dream is to start a program for youth to develop some local kids, and she thinks the club might be able to take on about four dedicated young athletes by next year.

The club’s membership also includes Maureen Harriman, the former world champion who took time away from the sport but is now back between the oars. Harriman, who raced with the five Cascadia medal winners at the U.S. northwest regionals, is set to compete with Ziff at the FISA World Rowing Masters championship in St. Catharines, Ont., in September.

The Whistler rowers will enter multiple events, taking on the world’s best masters with some 2,700 athletes expected to enter from 304 clubs in 253 cities and 35 countries.

The 69-year-old Ziff said she started rowing at age 56, and her hero is a 76-year-old woman who is still rowing hard and winning races at these events.

“It’s a sport for life, so it doesn’t really matter when you start. As long as you get in your boat, you can row,” she said.