Rowing has an incredibly rich history in Boston and on August 22nd, Red Bull will try to revolutionize the sport with High Stakes.

Red Bull High Stakes brings 16 teams of world class rowers to the Riverside Boat Club on the Charles River for an a single-elimination relay tournament that will try to bring rowing to a mainstream audience. While the average rowing race is 2,000 meters in a straight line, High Stakes will see rowers go 250 meters before having to make an unorthodox 180 degree “stake turn” back. The teams of 15 will feature eight-man, quads, double and single boats in a relay.

The event is a collaboration between American rower, Olympic hopeful and Red Bull athlete Andrew Campbell and Sean Wolf–a former rower who now runs Rowing Illustrated, a rowing podcast/website. The goal of the event is to put an unconventional twist on a deeply tradition sport to bring in a new audience.

“I think that this event is going to be exciting because it takes rowing in its purest form, which is just racing, very simple, and adds kind of a tactical element to it,” said Campbell. “In addition to the fact that the stake turn is gonna make such that spectators can see the entire race take place.”

The event is free and because the race is only covers 250 meters, an area set up on the Cambridge side of the river will provide great views of the race – traditionally a problem with normal rowing races due to their length. According to Campbell, the idea for the stake turn came out of the inability to get platforms into the basin of the Charles because of its depth.

The turn is unlike anything many of the rowers will have dealt with before.

“Rowing is focused on pushing with your legs and pulling with your arms and in order to do that stake turn it’s the exact opposite,” he said. “Because you’re stopping the boat at its maximum speed, so you’re pushing against the oar. So I think for a lot of rowers that’s gonna be a really challenging element.”

If anyone can handle it, though, it’s the stacked roster of rowers for the event. Multiple U-23 world champions and former or aspiring olympians will be participating.

That was where Wolf came in.

After Campbell was approached by Red Bull to develop a rowing event in Boston, he reached out to Wolf who has deep roots in the rowing community.

“I guess Red Bull asked [Campbell] who knows everyone in rowing in the area and Andrew said, ‘I think this guy Sean Wolf does, you should reach out to him,'” he said.

Wolf serves as regatta director and athlete manager. He also works for WinTech Racing, which is sponsoring the event and providing the boats. While Campbell will be away for the event, pursuing a place in next year’s Olympics, Wolf will run the event operations on that day with Red Bull.

To Wolf and other in the rowing community, this event could be a look into the future of rowing or at least be replicated elsewhere.

“We already have other people interested in other parts of the country that are flying in just to observe,” said Wolf. “So it’s interesting to see how this is taking off. Other people from California looking to see if we could possibly bring it there. I’m on pins and needles, I want to make sure this one gets off the ground and going first before I move to the next one. This one’s got to be done, I’ve got to keep my mind focused on this one event and making sure everyone has fun and that people enjoy it.”