[Paddlewise] Third rolling class.

    Last night I had my third of four kayak rolling sessions.  Things
finally came together for me.  In my first session my instructor told me
that I have an explosive hip snap (it sure felt like a bomb went off
under my ribs the next day!), which is a great help.  Unfortunately I
was relying too much on that power and not enough on technique.  I was
able to right the boat on occasion but it was not smooth, reliable, or
pretty.  In the second session I felt that I took a step backwards as I
couldn't complete even one roll, but it forced me to take a good look at
what I was doing.
    For the third session I started right back at the basics, the paddle
float came back out and I practiced my hip snaps for almost an hour, all
the while watching and listening to Jed working with another student.
When I felt that I had worked enough on my "muscle memory" I decided to
take the next step.  First try and the roll was almost effortless!
After several more rolls to prove that it was not a fluke I decided to
take a rest and let a friend try my kayak.
    The things that made the biggest difference to me were seemingly
small instructions.  The biggest was to watch the paddle blade
throughout the roll, it sets your head up more naturally.  I hear that
the Australians teach this method.  The second most important was to
watch my blade angle, I had been getting a lot of paddle dive
previously.  Finally was SLOW DOWN!!  When I slowed things down just a
little I was able to correct mistakes as they happened.  On the second
roll I started to get  little paddle dive so I just sped up my hip
rotation a bit to compensate.  The result wasn't pretty, but it got me
up.
    Others last night were even more successful than I was.  Jed's son
took all of about 15 minutes of instruction to learn his roll, and one
woman had her first onside and first offside roll last night.  All in
all a great night for everyone involved.
    I would like to thank Jed Luby, another Paddlewiser,  for organizing
these pool sessions, and for his patient and tireless instruction.
Without his efforts none of this would have happened and I would still
be looking for a place to learn to roll.

Mike

--
    Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are
visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a
great
blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a
mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your
passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space.
Mark H Hunt


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