Back in the good old white water days, when I was only half as old (~1975), I usta train at rolling by going out to the lake in Nashville, TN and practice doing successive rolls. These were not for speed, but one after another, no breaks for 10-12 at a time. These were C- C. I would just reach up to the surface, get the blade out to the side and crank myself upright--like doing chin-ups. One happy summer day, I got to roll #9 and suddenly found there was no strength in my "out" arm. Couldn't get up! Bailed out, somewhere out in the lake. I don't remember if I was with anyone and don't remember how I got back to shore. I found I had pulled some tendons in my left elbow. This made my left arm pretty useless for some months. No more paddling that year. The C_C is a power roll and I put power into every roll. The next year I learned to roll to the back deck. Start forward and finish on the back deck. I did that without fail on all those great West Virginia Rivers. As for example on the Gauley River where the mining companies want to do Mountain top removal mining and fill the river valleys with rubble. West Virginia, Mt mama, by John Denver was our theme song. The back deck roll was a coordination matter, not a power roll. I could do as many as I wanted from then on. In the early 90's, the Greenland rolling came in. The white water guys were always saying C-C no matter where you paddle. Who knew we were really doing acceptable rolling all those years before John Heath came along with his Greenland videos. Chuck Sutherland *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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