A farewell to Oarstack
The predecessor to this site! It had a good run, 2014-2022
In 2022 we said goodbye to Oarstack, with its separate videos for normal speed and slow motion and very purist lack of on-screen text. But it had a good run! Oarstack was created when the footage moved to YouTube in 2014. In the end it had all sorts of automation to get the footage uploaded during the days of the events. It could do things that the 2025 system still can’t, like generate a custom description for each video. It would spend hours uploading to YouTube overnight - a key feature back in the days of slow broadband. Playlists were king, and used to tie the normal and slow motion footage together.
YouTube does downgrade the quality of footage it shows if it hasn’t been watched for, well, a decade, but I still have the originals! Here’s a sample below - it’s YouTube equivalent is Cauis M1 from the Head of the Cam 2014.
For this event I could use the burst feature of Sony’s NEX-FS700 to record at 120fps for up to 16 seconds. The camera would then take three times the capture duration to write it to memory, so with luck would just be ready in time for the next crew. Alas that wouldn’t work for the Bumps races, which need continuous capture for a couple of minutes.
Here’s what the front page of www.oarstack.com looked like on the day of retirement:
and here’s a copy of the content:
Welcome to Oarstack! Please choose a destination:
Footage from the Cambridge Town Bumps 2022 is on the YouTube channel.
Footage from the Cambridge May Bumps 2022 is on the YouTube channel.
Footage from the Cambridge Town Bumps 2021.
Extracting photos from the Cambridge June Eights Regatta 2021 footage.
Footage from the Cambridge June Eights Regatta 2021.
Footage from the Cambridge Town Bumps 2019.
Footage from the Cambridge May Bumps 2019.
Footage from the Cambridge May Bumps 2018.
Footage from the Cambridge May Bumps 2017.
Thursday Footage from the Cambridge May Bumps 2016.
Wednesday Footage from the Cambridge May Bumps 2016.
2015 footage from Wednesday and Thursday.
Oarstack analysis, also your source for high-quality downloads.
The 2014 highlights reel – start here for a taster.
Recent footage – find what you need quickly.
Oarstack on YouTube for 2016, 2015 and 2014 – the Oarstack YouTube channels.
Extracting a photo from Oarstack video – a guide.
Oarstack on Facebook – Like this page to get updates.