Boireau throws himself in the delicate art of rowing. The film opens on an open-air dance hall on the banks of the Marne. Boireau bets that he knows how to manoeuvre the boat. He makes it to the bank and climbs aboard, not without some difficulty. As he moves away from the bank he causes a great deal of accidents, overturning some fishermen, some bathers and a photographer who is working with a tripod. He easily clears a waterfall that on the other hand slows down the speedboat that is chasing him, whilst his friends cheer from the bank the success of the aspiring rower.

Jean A. Gili

On the wave of comedy films describing catastrophic apprenticeships (such as Les Débuts d’un aéronaute and Les Débuts d’un patineur by Max Linder in 1907), here André Deed, who had already appeared in Les Débuts d’un chauffeur in 1906 and Les Apprentissages de Boireau in 1907, grapples with the difficult and rather dangerous art of maneuvering the oars on a boat. A swim is guaranteed! In 1908 he made L’Apprenti architecte.

Jean A Gili