Re: [Paddlewise] Eskimo roll

From: Bill Hansen <bhansen2_at_twcny.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 08:36:41 -0400
Bob - RE: The "tucked arm" during a roll -

I've done this both ways. I know that the standard practice is to get both
hands up out of the water before the paddle sweep. But two of the boats I
paddle are deep enough so that it's difficult for me to get the non-rolling
hand out of the water. This is probably complicated by the fact that my
whole back is pretty stiff, so I can't curl it around like many younger
people do. Although someone on the PW list wrote that the rolling-side
paddle blade should be just under the water's surface when rolling, that
doesn't work well for me with a Euro paddle. (With the Greenland paddle, the
rolling blade can be just about anywhere, under or on top of the surface.)

Anyway, a bit more than a year agoI was having a lot of trouble rolling for
other reasons - I had completely lost the ability to roll as I partly
recovered from a neck injury. In re-learning and when using the deep boats,
I discovered that it's much easier to get the rolling blade on the water's
surface when the non-rolling hand is just bout shoulder level. That lead to
the practice of tucking that non-rolling arm at my side. (With the
non-rolling hand at shoulder level and the rolling hand "reaching for the
sky", the paddle shaft can make an angle upward, so the blade can clear the
water's surface by quite a bit if you want it to do that.)

This works especially well for me in rough water.

In my Romany, and in other boats which aren't so deep, I do it the
"traditional" way, pushing both hands up out of the water before starting
the sweep.


Bill Hansen
Ithaca NY

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Received on Fri Jun 16 2000 - 05:36:57 PDT

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