Emma Molenaar focused on increasing awareness of rowing ahead of Three Rivers Rowing Marathon on July 24

Molenaar moved to Port Macquarie in August last year from western Sydney where she had coached at St Joseph's College at Hunters Hill.

And while the main reason for the move was a sea change, it has provided an opportunity for her to work on growing the awareness of a sport she has spent more than the past decade in.

When Molenaar first arrived in the region she was surprised at how the awareness of the sport was nearly non-existent and now she wants to fix that as well as help alter the misconceptions.

"The misconception that rowing seems to only be for the privileged, rich kids is not true and I can attest first-hand to that; it's not true," she said.

While she concedes to have been privileged to work at Joey's "where they have all the equipment under the sun", when it came to regional clubs it wasn't true.

She says part of the misconception stemmed from a lack of awareness.

"I don't know how many people in Port Macquarie know there is a rowing club here and it seems to be a sport that is not offered to a lot of people," she said.

"You can see a football field when you drive past, but how often do you see rowers on the water unless you live there."

Ahead of the Three Rivers Mini Marathon on July 24, Molenaar will continue to put local rowers Tom Jenkins and Isaiah Chandler through their paces.

Jenkins is currently away at the Australian Institute of Sport.

"I was fortunate enough to inherit two junior rowers after their previous coach needed a handover because he moved out of town," Molenaar said.

"When I got to take over and coach Tom and Isaiah we went to various competitions including small boat regattas and state championships. Then nationals got moved to Victoria (because of the pandemic) which was inconvenient."

She hopes she can also breathe some "fresh air" into the rowing club which is located on a best-kept secret - the Hastings River.

"You see turtles, stingrays, dolphins here... how can you not like that?" she said.

Her original love of the sport can be traced back to 2008 at Beijing when the Dutch Women's Eight stormed home to win silver.

"I came into the sport of rowing at the age of 25 from a basketball and soccer background, but before that [rowing] was never on my list," she said.

"When I saw the Dutch women win silver at Beijing in 2008 I thought I could do that."

Molenaar says more people will drastically change how they view the sport when the awareness grows.

"I have compared rowing many times to life," she said.

"It's one stroke at a time and you've just got to keep going and if something doesn't work, you've got to formulate or change your plan."

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