Three events. One machine. Everyone races.

The RowOn Indoor Hat Trick is a Row Ontario pilot, hosted within the Sport Niagara environment, with Concept2 Canada the intended equipment and technical partner. It is a festival-style indoor competition built around the number three — the “Hat Trick”: three events, raced in one fixed order on the same machines. Peak Power (three self-paced maximal surges in one three-minute window — the highest single stroke in watts wins), the Three-Minute Test (all out for three minutes, head-to-head in waves — the most metres wins), and Step Up or Out (a universal power ladder that starts easy and rises every 30 seconds — a beep test for watts, where every climb ends at a peak stage reached). A single common standard — watts and time — lets everyone race speed-to-speed, with rankings resolved afterward across many categories so every age and ability leaves with a meaningful result.

It is designed as a hybrid festival rather than a closed regatta: ranked racing, season-baseline testing, and open come-try activations run alongside one another on the same day. That mix is deliberate — it gives competitive rowers meaningful racing, gives water rowers a structured reason to train indoors over winter, and gives newcomers a low-barrier first contact that routes into Row Ontario’s on-water pathway. Indoor is the right vehicle: it removes the seasonal, geographic and equipment barriers of on-water rowing, and it is a straightforward first experience for someone who has never rowed. Divisions span gender, age band and experience; Para athletes are accommodated on an inclusion basis; there are no weight classes; and a win is a win in any field — finishing is never worth zero.

Indoor rowing is new to Row Ontario’s calendar but not to the sport: it is raced to world-championship level, and the 2023 World Rowing Indoor Championships were held in Mississauga. The Hat Trick runs the discipline at festival scale. Race day runs as a live show with commentary, a big board and certificates printed on the spot, while underneath, the same three results form a per-stroke dataset and a re-testable baseline for every athlete — one morning serving both participation and performance, in line with Row Ontario’s strategic plan and the Canadian Sport Policy 2025–2035.

Attendees are encouraged to bring a non-perishable food item in support of Feed Niagara and local community initiatives.