[Paddlewise] Fear of rolling.

Jeff posted (snip):

>woman who is very athletic and a great paddler/bracer, etc...when she was
very inexperienced...was trapped in it underwater...Now she is very
uncomfortable going underwater...it inhibits her ability to learn to
roll...Anybody have any suggestions on what she could practice in order to
get her confidence up and to move away from her fears?<

Here's an article from Sea Kayaker with some information:

http://www.seakayakermag.com/2003/03April/Entrapment/Entrapment_01.htm

A few years ago (okay, decades), I took a week's training with some other
Victoria paddlers under the coaching arm of Derek Hutchinson. One of the
ladies in our group had great physiological difficulty demonstrating the wet
exit (though it was easy for her to physically perform) and much more
difficulty with the one particular day's instruction of sculling for support
(head had to get wet). From what I remember, we had to learn to scull before
learning to roll, so she was immediately handicapped in that sense. There
was no sensitivity shown; I'm not sure how she managed with the rest of the
course as I forgotten now, I do remember one of the local canoe instructors
taking the course with us taking her aside at the pool (we had been on the
ocean for all our training) and helping her one-on-one, with the aid of a
nose plug. She was eventually able to skull, especially after perfecting the
hip snap (I still just use mostly muscle as certain nuances were never
explained and I just kept employed what originally worked for me). I think
masks were discouraged as too much of an aid at our ad hoc pool sessions
following the BCU course.

I think the key components in your friend's situation would necessarily
include a low stress environment, some intrinsic determination wholly
subjective on her part, and someone objectively adept at working with her
individually to show her that going underwater is a whole lot of fun. Often,
it may take someone of the same gender to court success. My two cents (or
dollars, including the article highlighted). :-)

Doug Lloyd
Victoria BC
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