RE: [Paddlewise] 5 rolls is not enough

Niels Blaauw wrote:

>>>>Last winter I managed to teach myself the sweep roll, C-to-C,
screw-roll,
dry-sigarette-roll, broken-paddle-roll and handroll, all on both sides of
the boat, all with a dry and a swamped boat, all with and without a PFD.
Sounds solid, doesn't it? So on my first trip at sea, I decided to cool my
head with my most solid roll on my most solid side... I managed, but it was
a close call. What happened? I lined my paddle on the left side of my boat,
rolled, but didn't manage to make the first half, due to the combined
flotation of my drytop and PFD in the salt water. No problem, I thought, I
will roll on the other side. I brought the paddle to that side (right side),
but that gave enough force to push my body under water and to the left side
of the boat. Deadlock! In the end, by moving very slow and carefully, I
managed to get my body and paddle on the same side of the boat and perform
the roll. By then my companions had noticed I had some trouble and were
preparing an eskimo-rescue. I felt the bow of one of their boats go through
my hair when I finally rolled up.
Weeks later I concluded that the only way out of this problem is a sculling
roll, that you can start in any position, upside down or laying on any side.
By now I added this roll to my repertoire.

What surprises me is that very few people around me have mastered the
sculling roll and nobody regards it as an important technique. Do they have
non-floating PFD's, bricks in their head, just not a clue, or some other
solution?<<<<<<<<

Sid Stone" <SNStone_at_email.msn.com> answered:
>>>>>>>>The issue is not the number of rolls, but the ability to execute a
roll in
varying conditions. You learned and practiced in one environment and then
put it to the test in another environment. Rather than learning another roll
I woudl focus on practicing in more difficult conditions wearing the
equipment you would use in a real paddling situation.  You must  also have
one roll that you are totally confident will work.  I initially learned to
roll using an extended paddle (pawlatta) roll. I periodically practice it as
I know I can get back up. It's my  insurance policy.

When it comes to rolling, quality over quantity.<<<<<<<<

In this case a new technique is needed. however starting a skulling roll
from the wrong side is also very difficult. I too discovered this problem
when I first got a dry suit and didn't burp it well enough. Even when I
burped the drysuit this would occasionally crop up and cause me to have to
swim in the surf. Being the experimental type of learner and not liking to
swim in big surf I was very motivated to come up with a solution. I put two
PFD's on in a swimming pool and proceeded to try skulling myself into
position to execute a roll but was not having much success getting myself
sculled down to get to the otherside (and switching to rolling on the
otherside would just reverse the problem as Niels also experienced). Later
finding myself in the shallow end of the pool, I was forced to change what I
was trying since the paddle couldn't go deep when skulling.
Wow, it worked!
Try this with two PFD's. Set up to roll with your most "quality" method. If
you find yourself floating up on the wrong side for your roll use your
already set up blade to take a stroke that brings the blade in a power
stroke right across (under) the deck of your kayak. This will flop you over
to floating up on the correct side for that roll. Next feather your blade
and slice it back under your deck into the roll position for your best roll
and do it. This a is quick and simple and has worked for me the one time
since that floating up on the wrong side happened to me in the wild. I was
overjoyed to come up with this method since the flopping back and forth
trying to switch sides and finding myself in the same predicament was
getting quite frustrating.

Matt Broze
http://www.marinerkayaks.com

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