Word

**brice618** · 02-19-2008, 10:25 PM

I got my roll tonight on my very first real kayak pool session. Also dropped the high dive a couple times. It was fun! I'm surely hooked, now I just need to get some real river experience and rolling both ways.

**Storm11** · 02-19-2008, 11:55 PM

Good.... now go take that shit out to the river and get ready to be humbled.

**brice618** · 02-20-2008, 11:23 AM

Thats what I keep being told, and I figure I'll be getting all kinds of worked for the first few months.

**donutlynx** · 02-20-2008, 11:28 AM

Nic job.

I remember learning how to roll. Then forgetting how to roll. Then learning again, and so on. It finally stuck, thankfully. That roll thing (even handrolls) have gotten me out of a jam or two. Probably saved my life once or twice along the way as well.

We're all "in between swims" anyway.

**Storm11** · 02-20-2008, 06:14 PM

Stick with it. I had my roll NAILED in the pool, onside and off and could roll with just a kickboard. It took me 13 days of paddling to hit ONE combat roll, and the first time I hit one, I got stuffed under a log about 25 yards later (no lie). Luckily it was deep enough that I just flushed out the other side, but scary as all hell.

My advice to you:
1. buy earplugs. Quiets things down and helps you relax (the most important aspect of rolling). Stay loose.

2. get your upper body as close to the surface of the water as you can before starting your roll. Let your lifejacket and core body bouyancy help with your roll. If you can focus on keeping your body in the same position close to the surface while rotating your hips (and thus the boat coming upright as you hipsnap) and KEEPING YOUR HEAD TUCKED and underwater until the LAST moment, it makes things a WHOLE lot easier. If you do it right, you'll notice that you have to use VERY little pressure on your paddle blade in order to right yourself. If you're having to use a lot of paddle force to get up, you're doing something wrong.

3. Go find a playpark and get worked. Bring a friend and beer for the number of times your friend has to wrestle your sunken boat to shore. Which leads me to #4...

4. BUY FUCKING FLOAT BAGS!

**Yonder_River** · 02-20-2008, 06:32 PM

Huh, thirteen days to hit a roll? I must be all talented n'shit cause after having a bombproof roll in a pool, then a lake, I knocked off my first roll in class III the first time out.

**ridinshockgun** · 02-20-2008, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by Storm11

4. BUY FUCKING FLOAT BAGS!

+1

I actually was at a point when learning to roll where I could roll everytime in class III but never in flat water. That was some weird shit.

I still go to the pool once or twice a month to work on my roll.

**Storm11** · 02-20-2008, 10:11 PM

I had a big fear of moving water to overcome....and still do to an extent.

I had the same thing trouble rolling in flatwater for a while too after I had a decent combat roll.

**RootSkier** · 02-21-2008, 10:10 AM

Cool man. Now get that shit down so you don't end up like this guy.

**skibuminwyo** · 02-21-2008, 01:52 PM

That is not a happy place to be.....

**chrismo720** · 02-21-2008, 02:27 PM

congrats man

next time your out on the river, find a nice deep spot with realy weird currents, like small whirlpools and some eddy lines and waves and whatnot, and just flip over and roll up, and just keep doing that but not from a setup position, just put your hands over your head or on your deck, just remember when you flip in whitewater your roll wot be from setup so u have to find yourself....

basicaly just get confortable under water.

**wcf3** · 02-21-2008, 03:49 PM

+1 on earplugs, noseplugs and river practice.

IMHO the best place to refine a combat roll is a small, somewhat retentive play hole with a mellow stretch behind it. (A stretch where it's no big deal to go for a swim). Once you go over (and you will) you'll get that nice disorientation and buffeting of real white water. You can then learn to find the direction of the current and how to choose the side to set up your roll on.

Once you've got both sides mastered, you can start working on a back-deck roll...

**ridinshockgun** · 02-21-2008, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by wcf3

Once you've got both sides mastered, you can start working on a back-deck roll...

Im going to disagree on the offside roll. While I think everyone should have one it isn't as important as most people say it is.

Getting a really, really solid roll in moving water is more important than getting an offside roll. I have a solid offside roll but I've rarely, rarely (as in a few times when stuck in holes) ever needed one. Back deck, another story...I use it all the time, even creeking and it has saved my ass many times getting me back up quick enough to still make a needed move.

**wcf3** · 02-22-2008, 10:58 AM

Until my knees refused to play along any more I spent much of my paddling career in a C1 <=> didn't have an offside roll. I did plenty of very serious runs in the C1, so I can't argue with the fact that you can paddle at a high level without an offside roll.

On the other hand, I did have a number of really nasty swims in the C1 that could be directly attributed to the lack of an offside roll. Mostly from getting stuck in holes on the wrong side. (Try getting out of a big hole just with cross bow strokes...).

In that situation you don't really even need a particularly good offside roll, since the current will help you out quite a bit, but if you just keep setting up against the current, nothing good is going to happen.

For me, the best part of kyaking vs. paddling C1 is having that offside roll, so I'm a big fan of having a roll on both sides.

**donutlynx** · 02-22-2008, 11:51 AM

^^It is a nice feeling when you are floating upside down and your on-side roll is being stuffed by the current...to have an off-side roll to get you on top of the water. Back deck rolls are nice to have, too, but do leave your face exposed sometimes, which is good for getting your face bashed up. All rolls are nice to have in your pocket, just in case one isn't working for some reason. Swimming in some situations just ain't right. $0.02.

Who's ready for the spring season?

**skibuminwyo** · 02-22-2008, 11:53 AM

You have no idea how ready I am.

**SurfTheEarth** · 02-22-2008, 01:29 PM

May your addiction begin

Hooking up with a solid V boater or Swiftwater Rescue class to get some safety experience should be next.

Weird shit can happen on the river.

**Yonder_River** · 02-22-2008, 02:34 PM

Trust me, you want a offside roll sooner than later. They don't take that long to learn and they're helpful in many situations.

**Dr. Wolfgang Schlitz** · 02-23-2008, 05:28 PM

Offsides can be helpful, but I'd say the most important thing is to make your regular roll muscle memory so you don't even have to think when you go over -- the roll just sort of happens. That and tuck your head to guard your grill.