Ergometer
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Peloton Row is a smart rowing machine that costs $3,195
Peloton's belated entry into the rowing market is here.
The Hydrow Wave is a smaller and cheaper smart rowing machine
It's smaller, and cheaper, but the makers of Hydrow Wave promise it's still the closest thing to rowing on water.
Echelon made a more-affordable smart rowing machine
If you've heard of Echelon, it's probably in the context of its cheaper-than-Peloton connected spin bikes. The company also makes smart exercise mirrors, and here at CES, it was showing off its forthcoming Echelon Row rowing machine. After spending a few minutes on the show floor rowing, I think I might be smitten with this quite affordable, pretty clever machine, which is a world away from what I'm currently using.
Ergatta isn't the first connected rowing machine, but it is the prettiest
Rowing isn't a particularly cool or accessible sport. The real thing -- pulling oars through water -- is an expensive hobby, requiring access to a boat, a crew and a suitable body of water. You could try a rowing machine in the gym, but even rowers who love rowing tend to hate rowing machines. I should know: I rowed all through college, and for a few years after. And yet. Over the past year I've seen at least two connected home-rowing machines that attempt to make this repetitive, sometimes grueling sport feel more fun. First was Hydrow, what you could fairly refer to as the Peloton of rowing machines. Today at CES I had a chance to take some strokes on the Ergatta Digital Rower. The Ergatta is decidedly not a Peloton equivalent, or so the company's founders insist. When you scroll through the ergometer's 17.3-inch screen, you don't see group classes. You see workouts dressed up as games. It's up to you if you want to compete with yourself or other users who have completed the same workout recently.
Hydrow could be the Peloton of rowing machines
I would like to get in my time machine and explain to my college crew teammates what I'm looking at. It appears to be an ergometer (that's a fancy word for "rowing machine"), except the pull isn't a chain but a flat ribbon of fabric. There's no resistance lever on the side, and the underside is one big, swoopy curve, not unlike the hull of a boat. It has minimalist metal legs, similar to some TVs. Most important, there's a 22-inch screen attached, staring you right in the face. It's an erg from the future. As a college rower I dreaded the erg; using it felt lonely and monotonous. But I might have liked the Hydrow. As its creators describe it, it is the Peloton of rowing machines -- which is to say, it's an erg for the home, with a monthly subscription plan that includes live and prerecorded workouts hosted by a mix of instructors. The program also includes mat exercises meant to complement rowing, like yoga poses. Hydrow won't ship until May and has yet to receive some of its most compelling software features. But even in its early stages, it comes closer than anything else to capturing the sensation of rowing on water.
