Re: [Paddlewise] snippings

In another part of the article Dan siad:

"Learning to roll is a matter of personal choice. There are many paddlers
with years of safe paddling experiences, who do not know how to roll, and are
not about to begin, thank you very much. This is a valid position and needs to
be respected. I suspect the vast majority of sea kayakers fall into this
category. I believe there is a fork in the learning path of all kayakersbone
path leads to a roll, one path does not. The important thing is to make an
informed decision about which path to pursue. If youbre going to learn to
roll,
make sure youbre doing it for the right reason."

I respect the fact that rolling is not done perfectly by everyone deemed
normally to have a decent roll, but rolling is not really a huge commitment.
If
you remove the context of Sea from Kayaker you would find rolling a much more
common skill. Yes, the tuning of that roll in dynamic conditions takes a
longer time, but can you even make an informed decision without knowing a
basic
roll? The sneaky thing about Dan is he is really talking about judgement and
you  don't really have to have a combat roll if you are judicious about your
paddling  venue. Of course, advancing your capabilities in case you are
unjudicious  doesn't seem so unrealistic to me. I was unrealistic 8 times last
weekend, but  then again, I was surfing, a caveat he allowed himself.

Cheers,

Rob G


In a message dated 10/5/2006 11:36:55 AM Pacific Standard Time,
JFarrelly5_at_comcast.net writes:

snipped  this from page 29 of the latest Wavelength mag. It is from the
article To  Roll Or Not To Roll by Dan Lewis.
I caught myself wrinkling my brow when I  first read it. But if I apply
the author's standard to most of the sea  kayak rollers I know it seems
to fit. Most of my buddies can roll well  enough in a non pressure
situation. But when the accidental capsize occurs  its punchout time for
many of them.
Jim et al



"In terms  of a self rescue, I think the roll is a fairly unrealistic
response to  many capsizesif youre tipping over by fluke in flatwater
conditions, you  probably arent gripping the kayak tightly enough with
your knees to stay  in and roll back up. If youre tipping over because
youre paddling in  wind and waves beyond your abilities, you are quite
likely to be too  freaked out to stay in the boat and roll, and even if
you do, youre right  back in the same situation. If you are capsizing
due to a lack of  judgement or understanding of ocean conditions, then
you might be better  off investing your time learning to understand the
weather, the ocean, and  how to navigate to avoid problems."
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