[Paddlewise] Rolling, You get it, then you lose it

Hey folks,

After all the very interesting and helpful postings on "How to roll", 
which sure gave a lot of people inspiration to give it a try, and the 
stories how people got their rolls I can't help it.
Quite a number of people, including me, seemed to learn their roll 
in more or less a few short time.  We keep practising and it seems 
to be so easy.  In one of the next session nothing works, and we 
blow one attempt after the other.  Just when we think we lost it, the 
roll comes back.  This "I was able to roll yesterday, today I don't 
get it, but hopefully tomorrow it will work again" experience 
apparently happened to a good number of people. 
When it happened to me I blamed the boat.  After learning in a 
whitewater rodeo playboat (took the instructor ~ 2 x 15 minutes to 
get me via extended paddle roll to the sweep roll), the first attempts 
in a seakayak (Dagger Seeker) were similar easy.  The second 
time in the Dagger it worked during the first 30 minutes, after that it 
was gone.  A week later I got my own boat into the pool.  It is a 
hard chined homebuilt stitch and glue greenlandstyle kayak.  The 
first session with it was with a ~50% success rate.  The second 
pool session in it was a disaster, nothing worked.  Not good for ego 
and self confidence, and worse I started to think to much about it 
while doing, ehh trying, it.  The 3rd session started in a similar 
way.  One blow after another.  Then somebody wanted to try my 
boat, just to find out how a hard chined boat feels, and I got in her 
boat (CD Storm).  Instantly rolling worked again, it was so easy. 
Later back in my boat, with a lot of regained self confidence on 
board, I was able to roll it.  However, it was harder to roll than the 
plastic Storm, but it was maybe just a difference in the fine tuning.  
It is fairly easy to get it up till the boat is on its chine, than it needs 
an extra kick to get over this point into the upright position.  Two 
weeks ago, 2 month after the last pool session, I tried it again.  
This time in the ocean, OK it was calm but still cold. It worked so 
easy that time.  Now I have to get over the whimp in me and keep 
doing it. But the water is still so cold, and in the harbour, were I do 
all my evening paddling, the water quality is also no 
encouragement, but next time............

Cheers

Ulli

 
Dr. Ulli Hoeger
Dept. Physiology and Biophysics
Dalhousie University
Halifax, B3H4H7, Nova Scotia
Canada

Phone I : 902-494-2673
Fax: 902-494-1685
Phone II :902-488-6796
http://is.dal.ca/~uhoeger
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