I got inspired by Shawn's reports of his rolling successes (at least I think it was Shawn; if not, apologies) . . . so last night I got adventurous and tried a screw roll -- no sweat -- onside, it feels much more powerful and controlled than my C to C that i have been relying on. My confidence buoyed, I then tried an offside screw roll for the first time and flubbed it. I dont even want to try an offside C to C, since my body just doesnt want to bend that far in that direction. I quickly recovered with an onside C to C . . . I tried another offside screw roll, and made it, but barely (paddle about 18" under the surface or so). It occurs to me that while I may with practice get a reliable offside flatwater screw roll, it will always be much much weaker than my onside roll, and probably not much use in combat conditions. My left side just will never be as strong (or as limber) as my right. So my question is for those who have actually rolled in combat conditions (I have not) -- has an offside roll ever been much help under conditions in which an onside roll was unsuccesfull? I dont buy the argument that if you may save time with an offside roll if your paddle happens to be closer to the offside set up position, since it hardly takes a second to work your paddle into the onside setup position. I am also not entirely convinced by the argument that, beam to the seas, there are conditions under which one side is favored over the other. From my own experience practising in a chop, successful rolling with beam seas is more a matter of timing than direction -- you cant roll uphill into either the front or the back of the wave. In any event, I'd rather be using a strong onside roll into a wave than a weak offside roll. Even if one side is favored over the other, can a disoriented upside down kayaker in rough seas really figure out which is the favored side in a few seconds? So is the offside roll just a pool trick to impress people, or has anybody on this list ever needed it to save their skin? Professor Karl S. Coplan Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic, Inc. 78 North Broadway White Plains, N.Y. 10603 kcoplan_at_genesis.law.pace.edu (914) 422-4343 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Jun 23 1999 - 10:08:52 PDT
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