None of this is is something the OPer should be focusing on right now, braces and skirt are enough. the OPer
But to the rest on hi/low sculling brace and rolling - some of the above is a good example of my frustration with the non-Greenland approach. If someone is teaching deep, like 360 degree, sculling they are teaching the bones of rolling.
Rolling lessons being unavailable in any given season would be irrelevant if preparation for a roll had been taught along with sculling at the outset.
If you can lay over on your side deep in the water sculling, all you need to do to eventually get to a roll is continue that so you can do it all the way over and all the way up again in a controlled fashion. Say decide to take four or five sculls down and same number up again. Eventually you will find that you can come up in a single one. This is how I got my left side, exactly. One evening in the pool I came up in a single stroke without thinking on it.
It does not require a Greenland boat or paddle to do this. It does require positions that are a lot closer to high brace than low brace at various points.
The HI/low thing is a change in teaching. IMO it also encourages people to think that a roll is a whole different animal from sculling. The high brace position is the one that the paddler is more in for a roll, because a low brace scull does not manage your position deep enough in the water to be in a roll setup.
I came up thru training as this change was happening so my low brace is probably the weak cousin. But I also learned to be religious about my angles to protect my shoulder. If I think I might need to be ready with a high brace my arms clamp to the side of my body and don’t move. Numerous coaches have seen me do this on wave faces etc and had no complaint with that part. Lots of comments about the rest of it…
This level of controlled sculling does take some time, which I have not put in this season and is the underlying reason for a weak roll right now. But it does work.
True enough. The low brace is used lots by trained paddlers. And, the low brace should be used more by beginners/inexperienced paddlers. The high brace using good technique has its purpose in advanced paddling conditions/surfing.
I disagree about the high brace being more useful than low in surf. It isn’t, Allan is right and the low can be just as good.
In my case it is habit because I was learning as things were changing, and as I said the high brace gets you closer to the kind of practice that gets to a roll.
From where I sit, a sculling brace is just a continuous motion version of a static brace. Basically the same body positions. So I am not sure why a low or high brace change would alter teaching that. It would just change how deep you are in the water while sculling. Low brace leaves you drier, high brace puts body into the water.
Just to be a buzz-kill and bring things back into relevance, I remind everyone that @NotThePainter indicates he’s done a wet exit and is working on getting back into the boat efficiently and repeatably. As he said: “baby steps”.
With a solid collection of unassisted reentry techniques, and the judgement to stay within conditions where they are effective, a roll is rarely (if ever) actually needed.
This coming from a guy who sometimes evokes envy from (annoys?) people with the frequency of his rolls while paddling with others. I still keep up on my scramble and paddle float rescues, but I should wet exit more often just because it’s better exercise.
Just concerned that NotThePainter is hearing stuff that is IMO unnecessarily complicated. People get lost in naming things rather than thinking about the actual motion involved dealing with an off balance kayak. Which is simpler than all the names.
Glad there are more tools in the paddling tool box than just one way of doing an evolution. That msut be why both the low and high brace are taught in ACA curriculum.
Agree that the low brace is vital and should be learned very early on as a new paddler.
Low brace can also mean chest sculling… which is the basis for forward finishing rolls {and also puts you in the water}
the difference between the balance brace and sculling for support is whether or not the kayak is past the break over point. Sculling for support and balance brace or also called static brace, are the basis for rear deck recovery rolls.
Had not thought of that. Would also wager that proper chest is sculling is one of the rarer skills. Rolling from that kind of a position might be much more common Greenland than Euro paddlers, though it should work.
