For water
Rowing blisters, and how to keep rowing
Short version: drain it from the side so the roof of skin survives, cover it with hydrocolloid, and tape over the top so the dressing stays on a sweaty hand. Then five minutes on the erg before you get in the boat.
Where the blisters are tells you something. Fingers are normal — everyone gets those, and they toughen up over a few weeks. Down in the palm usually means you are squeezing. Coaches call it the death grip, and the handle wants to hang off your fingers with the palm open.
On an erg it is grip almost every time. A handle that rotates in your hand, or a damper set heavier than you need, and your skin pays for it.
Draining one without wrecking the roof.
If it is up and full and you are going to drain it anyway, there is a better method than going in through the top, and it comes straight from rowers.
- 1
Go in from the side. Find healthy skin beside the blister. Sterilised needle, very shallow angle, slide under the skin and pop it from beneath.
- 2
Press the fluid out. Through that same channel. Slow, steady pressure.
- 3
Keep the roof. The loose skin on top is the best cover the wound has. Draining from underneath is the whole point of the method — the layers can settle back down.
- 4
Cover it with hydrocolloid. Cut roll tape a centimetre wider than the raw area all round so it seals onto clean skin. On a finger, cut a thin band and wrap it.
- 5
Dry tape over the top. A dressing on a hand needs something holding it there. Zinc oxide or Nexcare tape over the whole thing. For a finger, cut the tape in a long H and wrap the tabs around the knuckle.
Clean hands, clean needle. It is an open wound from that moment, so keep it out of river water and wash it after every session.
The loose skin
Trim the flap, or keep it?
A real disagreement, and the reason for it is mechanical.
General wound advice, ours included, is to leave loose skin alone. It is the best dressing the raw skin has, and it lifts off by itself once the skin underneath can cope.
Rowers trim it with sterile scissors, and they have a point. A flap that catches an oar handle mid-stroke tears wider and takes good skin with it.
So: flat and tucked, leave it. Lifting and catching, trim the part that catches. Anything still attached stays where it is.
Racing tomorrow
Nothing new on race day.
The week before Maadi is the worst possible time to change something about your hands. A strange pair of gloves between your palm and the handle is how you make it worse.
Wash it, cover it, tape over the top, and go five minutes on the erg to find out whether it is comfortable under load. The erg is where you want the surprise.
Preferences
Where rowers disagree.
Some of this is preference. Here is where the arguments are.
Air it or cover it. The oldest fight in the boat park. Plenty of rowers leave blisters open between sessions to harden them off, and reckon sealing them slows that down. The other half find a dry blister just cracks open again on the next outing. Hydrocolloid belongs to the keep-it-covered camp, which is where we sit. The harden-it-off approach has decades of rowers behind it.
Tough it out. A good number of rowers think the answer is to row through it and let the calluses arrive. They are right that it happens: give a new blister spot a few weeks and it roughens up. Whether you want to spend those weeks in pain is your call, and it changes if you have a regatta inside them.
Gloves. Most rowers will not wear them. Feel on the handle matters more to them than skin does. Some use fingerless or crew-stop gloves and get on fine.
Prevention
The fix is your grip, and we cannot sell you that.
Nothing we make stops you blistering. The thing that does is technique, so it is worth saying where to look.
Blisters down in the palm mean you are gripping. Hang off the handle with your fingers through the drive and keep the palm open. On an erg, the handle should not be turning in your hand at all, and the damper is probably set higher than it needs to be.
New blisters after a change of kit are normal. Carbon handles grip the skin harder than old wooden ones, and a switch between sculling and sweeping moves the wear to a different part of the hand. It settles.
Between sessions, keep the skin from going dry and cracking. Plenty of rowers put something on overnight for that.
What to use
A roll suits a hand better than a shape does.
A row of finger blisters and an opened-up palm are awkward shapes, and you cut the dressing to the damage.
Roll tape
A 5cm roll you cut to any shape. Thin bands for fingers, a bigger piece for a palm. Leave a centimetre of clean skin past the raw area all round so it has something to grip.
Roll Tape →Blister patches
Pre-cut, in five shapes. Quicker when it is one smaller blister and the shape happens to suit.
Blister Patches →You want thin zinc oxide, Nexcare or physio tape over the top of either one. Any chemist has it and we do not sell it.
Same injury, other places
Feet do this too.
A heel opening up in a tramping boot is the same injury as a palm opening up on a handle. The trail blister guide covers hot spots, multi-day trips and new shoes, and the ballet and pointe guide covers toes, and the running guide covers distance and race day.
For how to cut the roll so it stays put, see the hydrocolloid tape guide.
Common questions
The things rowers ask.
Can you row with a hydrocolloid patch on?
Rowers do, taped over. The method that comes up most is a hydrocolloid dressing with Nexcare tape on top, and rowers who use them say it cuts the pain and the healing time. Some build it up further — antiseptic spray-on plaster, then the dressing, then sports tape over the lot — so the tape holds everything and the dressing keeps the raw part from sticking. A minority row on bare hands by choice and reckon feel on the handle beats comfort.
What's the best way to drain a rowing blister?
Go in from the side. Sterilised needle at a shallow angle through healthy skin beside the blister, slide underneath, press the fluid out, and leave the roof of skin intact. Then hydrocolloid cut a centimetre wider than the raw area, and zinc oxide or Nexcare tape over the top to hold it on.
Should I trim the loose skin off a burst blister?
Leave it if it is flat and tucked down. If it is lifting and catching the handle, trim the catching part with sterile scissors — a flap that catches mid-stroke tears wider and takes good skin with it. Anything still attached stays.
I get blisters on the erg but not on the water.
That is grip. An erg handle should not rotate in your hand and you should not need to hold it tight. Check the damper too — plenty of people row a setting much heavier than they need.
Why are my blisters in my palm instead of my fingers?
Fingers are normal. Down in the palm usually means you are squeezing the handle. Coaches call it the death grip. Hang off the handle with your fingers and let the palm stay open.
Regatta tomorrow and my blister has already burst.
Wash it with mild soap and water and let it dry. Trim any flap that is lifting. Cover it with hydrocolloid cut wider than the raw skin, then zinc oxide or Nexcare tape over the top — kinesiology tape works too, cut in a long H for fingers. Then five minutes on the erg to check it before you get in the boat. No gloves you have never worn.
Should I let blisters dry out or keep them covered?
Rowers disagree and both camps have decades behind them. Airing them between sessions is meant to harden the skin faster. Keeping them covered and moist stops a dry blister cracking open again. Hydrocolloid belongs to the covered camp, which is where we sit.
Do rowing gloves help?
Most rowers will not wear them — feel on the handle matters more to them than skin does. Some use fingerless or crew-stop gloves. Either way, a regatta is the wrong day to try a pair for the first time.
When should I see a doctor?
Redness spreading out from the blister, heat, swelling, or yellow or green pus. That one needs a doctor. An open blister on a hand that has been on a boat, a handle and a boat park is worth keeping an eye on.
Burst-blister care follows NHS guidance. Anything we have not covered, email hello@mendpatch.nz — a real person will reply.