Re: [Paddlewise] Offside roll - How useful?

>Larry Koenig wrote:
<SNIP>
>It also has happened too often to
>me that when I tip over, my boat won't go all the way over but stays sort
of
>half tipped so that it becomes necessary to change set up sides.  As
someone
>else already mentioned if you miss the onside roll you are then in good
>position to do the offside and it might be a good idea to go ahead and roll
>offside because whatever property of the water kept you from coming up
>onside originally is likely to still be there.
>

This has happened to me several times. Usually in the surf when wearing a
drysuit. Especially before I learned to burp as much air out of the drysuit
as I could. The trouble with an off-side roll here is that when you try to
switch positions to the offside what invariably happens is that you float up
on the opposite side as well and it will still take 270 degrees to rotate
back up. Switching back to onside again just flops you over to the otherside
and by now your reserve air supply is getting low.
I was so frustrated by this (and having to swim in big surf becauseof it)
that I went to pool practice with the prime objective to figure out how to
beat this little bugaboo. I put on two PFD's which recreated the problem
nicely. After much confusion and many failures trying to scull myself over
to the right side I hit upon the solution in the shallow part of the pool
where I couldn't scull deep. It is quite simple. Set up for the roll and
when you realize you have floated up to the wrong side simply pull the
paddle blade down in a stroke that keeps the blade at about 90 degrees to
the curve of the deck (and right next to it). This stroke will cause you to
float up on the side you originally wanted to roll up on. Now simply feather
your blade and slice it back under the foredeck and into position to begin
your onside roll. Then roll. I got a chance to try it for real after being
dumped while wilderness kayak surfing last summer and it worked like a
charm.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com


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