[Paddlewise] Sweep Roll vs C-to-C roll.

Duane Strosaker wrote:

Whatever rolling video you get, if you are a sea kayaker and are learning to
roll, I'd recommend learning the sweep roll rather than the C to C. I do
both rolls on both sides (don't have an off side), and in a sea kayak, I
much prefer the sweep roll. It just seems more powerful and easier to do in
sea kayak, especially in a loaded one. 

Duane,

I have to agree strongly with you. Sweep roll is much easier than C to C roll, based on energy spent to do one or the other and other considerations that I would like to elaborate in here.

I´d like to take in consideration several arguments.
1.- One particular student.
2.- My own experience.
3.- Physics principles.
4.- Watching roll champions.

1.- One particular student.
Teaching rolling in my shortened kayak in my small swimming pool, I saw a girl and her father learning to roll with a paddle float.
The girl would start sweeping the paddle and then would lean  her body totally and completely over the back deck.
The effect was like magic. The kayak came back up almost by itself with no force on the paddle.
No intentional hip flick, no push down on the paddle.
She did it several times.

2.- I went back in the kayak and exaggerated my leaning to the back as I was sweeping my paddle.  Same thing happened. I was up.
I did several C to C rolls and noticed that I needed more force to get a finished roll and my paddle did sink about one foot. Then on sweep rolls, resting my back on the deck I could finish my roll with out any force and with the paddle at the same height as it was when I was sweeping.

3.- Physical principle.
It turns out to be very simple. If I roll a cylinder it will rotate very easily.

---------------------------
     .--.--.-!

 If I rotate a cylinder with a protrusion like a T shape, 

---------------------------
            !
            !
            !    

it will be harder to turn because there is weight outside of the rotating axis and it takes more torque to get it to turn.

    
When a kayaker aligns his upper body with the kayak, all the mass is within the kayak, and just a small flotation on one side will push the kayak upwards. All he has to do is give some rotation with a little hip motion or a little push on the horizontal paddle, to place the center of mass inside the kayak body and therefore, have the side flotation lift the hull to reach equilibrium.

When a kayaker is in the C position ready to roll, then he must exert more force to right himself up, since he is turning the boat keeping part of his/her body towards one side. He does it by doing a strong hip flick and sinking  the head, trying to compress himself as much as possible. No matter how well he does it, it will take more effort than when the body mass is already on the kayak, therefore there is some more force applied on the paddle and you can see that it sinks during the hip flick.

In my case, I can feel more effort in C to C than in sweep roll, when I do both on the same day, one after the other. This is only true if the body goes all the way to the back while doing the sweep roll.

To prove my point I have rolled alone the double kayak Tabasco, with it´s 29 inches width and 19 feet long, using extended paddle and sweep roll leaning all the way to the back deck. You can see that at http://community.webshots.com/user/cayucochief in the album rolls. 

I can not roll this kayak with C to C roll.

4.- Experienced kayakers.- If you see famous kayakers rolling without paddle, for example the winners at the last Surf Fest in Corpus Christy Mark White, Steve Walls, Chris Kuhlman, Juan Luis del Valle, using just the hand or a float, or worse with a brick in his hand like Maliquiaq Padilla, you´ll see that the less leverage they have (no paddle, float, etc), the more they roll resting completely on the back deck of their kayaks and completing the roll pushing on the water with the hand or brick or whatever they are holding.

For that reason, I agree with you that learning rolls is easier with a sweep roll. If a kayaker learns to roll sweeping, and resting all the way back, with an extended paddle, his/her chances of missing a roll are very small. Once they can roll 100% of the time, then they can shorten the paddle to normal paddling position and try C to C rolls both with extended paddle and normal paddle and other rolls, with the confidence that if they miss, they can use their extended-paddle-sweep-roll to come back up and breathe. With that confidence they can try surfing, bracing, sculling, etc. because they know they`ll be OK in case of capsize.

Best Regards,

Rafael.
el cayuco chief.
www.mayanseas.com 

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