Our Coaches
Iva Boteva
OWNER/COACH
Iva is the owner of iROW Fitness Studio and teaches lessons as well. She started rowing at the age of 10, with the support of both of her parents, former rowers. At the age of 13, Iva won her first medal in a single scull - bronze - at the Bulgarian Nationals. From there, she went on to achieve more than 6 Bulgarian National wins before the age of 18.
In 1997 at the Junior Worlds Championship in Belgium, Iva was recruited to row in America for the University of Southern California. With the help of a translator, she accepted the chance to come to California and row for USC. Iva led the team to several USC victories including a win in the Cal Cup in the San Diego Crew Classic, as well as a win in the coxed four at the NCAA National Championships in 1998. In addition, Iva had some major individual accomplishments while at USC, including a world record setting win at the CRASH-B World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston, where she won the open women’s race with a time of 6:37.9 at the age of 18.
Iva turned to coaching in 2002 as an assistant for the USC team and their coaching staff. Through coaching the novice women at USC she discovered a love and talent for teaching and ever since then coaching has become a permanent part her life, initially through coaching groups and private lessons for the former Lions Rowing Club in Marina Del Rey, then expanding to other clubs and teams such as the Marina Aquatic Center, California Yacht Club and Sports Club LA, to eventually opening iROW Fitness Studio in 2009 and establishing her own practice for private clients of all age groups and skill levels.
Nick Nistal
COACH
Nick Nistal started rowing at the age of 16 in Miami at the Miami Rowing Club. He started out rowing with the focus of losing weight and getting fit. One year later he realized just how much potential he had to get a scholarship to his school of choice Northeastern University. During his time at the Miami Rowing Club he placed 5th place in the men’s double at Youth Nationals and finished with 6:19 for 2k in the erg.
He was eventually awarded an athletic scholarship to row at Northeastern University where he competed alongside some of the fastest crew in the country. During his time at Northeastern he went on to pull a personal best on the erg 5:59 at Crash B’s indoor world championship placing him top 10 in the country (in the collegiate category). He was invited to the U-23 national team training camp his senior year. He fell just short of making the team, but continued training and competing in hopes of making the Olympics for several years. Although he never made it to the Olympic he is forever grateful for the incredible opportunity’s and life lessons that were learned along the way. He has now been coaching the sport for 10+ years at all different levels. Nick is very excited to have the opportunity to share his expertise and motivate every individual at iROW Fitness Studio.
Liz Wilson
COACH
Liz comes to us after two seasons as an assistant coach with the UCLA women. Prior to her time with the Bruins, she was active in the rowing community of Rochester New York where she served for seven seasons as the Freshman women’s coach at the University of Rochester. She was also integral to the development of the Genesee Rowing Club, which provides competitive, recreational, and learn to row opportunities for masters rowers. Liz has been a competitive rower herself since 1996 and most recently enjoyed gold at the Head of the Charles and San Diego Crew Classic.
Judy Shaper
COACH
Judy began rowing as a freshman at George Washington University in Washington DC. After three years she made the US National Rowing Team in the Quad competing at the World Championships in Amsterdam. Following that she moved to Potomac Boat Club and began competing as a lightweight. She and her doubles partner were never defeated neither nationally nor internationally in the four years they rowed together. Judy also won many competitions in the lightweight quad and four. After a long hiatus, Judy came back to rowing when she and her husband moved to Los Angeles and joined the California Yacht Club. For seven years Judy and her co-coach coached the CYC Recreational program and the under 17 competitive team. Their teams won regional championships every year and last summer won the National Championship Under 16 Girls Quad.
Shelby Adair
COACH
Shelby Adair started joined the iROW coaching team shortly after graduating from the University of Southern California in 2015. She was a member of the USC Div I Varsity rowing team for all four years of her collegiate career. Before USC, she attended Mira Costa High School and rowed for two years for Marina Aquatic Center (MAC) Junior Rowing club in Marina del Rey, CA. Shelby is experienced at sweep rowing and sculling and has been trained in small boats (1-4 person boats) and big boats (8 person boats). In 2015, Shelby was bow seat of the 2nd Varsity 8 and earned 3rd at San Diego Crew Classic, beat Princeton at Princeton, NJ and beat UCLA at the annual USC-UCLA duel as bow seat of the Varsity 4. In 2014, Shelby was bow seat in the USC 2V8 and then moved to seven seat of the 2V8 for PAC-12s. Academically, Shelby earned her B.A in Critical Studies--a division of USC School of Cinematic Arts and also minored in Spanish. In addition to coaching, Shelby hopes to continue to row and pursue her love of filmmaking.
Alex Hively
COACH
Alex Hively, 26, was born in Boston, Massachusetts and currently lives in Marina Del Rey. He started rowing sweep at 14 years old for Boston College High School on the Charles River. At 17, he moved to London and began racing as a sculler for Walton Rowing Club. He then went on to row as a Varsity Heavyweight for Harvard University. Alex has competed in 4 Henley Royal Regattas, 5 Head of the Charles', and over 50 other regattas throughout the course of his career.