I own an Eddyline Nighthawk 16. I am fairly new to Kayaking (about 2 years officially), and do not own many videos or attend classes (yet). I am very active and an former high level acrobat so I pick up things fairly quickly. I taught myself a C to C roll, Sweep Roll, and Extended sweep roll (with the help of the Kayak Roll DVD and Derek Hutchinsons book).
My question is aside from the no hands roll are their many other options for rolls in my current boat? I do know of other rolls that seem very cool,but are they strictly for an Greenland style boat? I toyed around with an backdeck roll but the deep cockpit doesn’t really allow me to layback. Any input would be helpful.
Lots of options
I know someone who does lots of different rolls in a Falcon 18. You just have to adjust your technique a little to accomodate the boat.
You can do throwing stick rolls, reverse sweeps (Greenland style & Steyr), and just about all of the forward recovery rolls. And if you’re good & flexible (And I assume you are from your background), hand rolls are not out of the question.
Experiment & don’t be afraid to fail. I’d recommend watching “Rolling with Maliqiaq” as well.
And if you really want to get into the more exotic rolls, pick up a used old-school WW kayak, like an RPM, Crossfire, or a Pirouette S or Super Sport. You can get them for about $150 - $200. Just make sure you can lay on the rear deck & bang your head on it.
And most of all…HAVE FUN DOING IT!!!
Wayne
Thanks Wayne
Thanks Wayne, I will certainly look for the dvd you mentioned. I love to mess around when the water and air temps are nice (unfortunately I live in New England). I just kinda wanted to know what was possible.
What Wayne said
I’ll second Wayne’s advise and add:
Learn each and everyone of the greenland rolling competition maneuvers with both Greenland sticks and Euro shovels (or norsaq or hands as the case might be). You may be able to facilitate a layback, even with your high rear-deck by lifting your butt off the seat.
One roll is never enough, learn more rolls than you have finger and toes.
I have a Falcon 18
which shares some of the same characteristics as the Nighthawk. One of them is the back support. Get rid of it and replace it with a quality back band that does not stick above the cockpit rim. In addition, check to see if your hip bone is level with the cockpit rim. If not, pad the seat to raise yourself up. This will change the paddling characteristics some (but is easy to adjust to) and make rolling a bit different. But it will allow you a lot more body motion and maneuverability.
most rolls can be done in most boats…
I would say that 90% of Greenland rolls can be done in 90% of the sea kayaks out there. As long as you have solid contact with the boat, most every roll is attainable. Sure the straightjacket roll, the elbow roll, and the under the hull sculling roll may be possible only in low volume rolling kayaks (unless you’re Dubside) but those are just three out of the dozens of rolls that exist.
Here’s some rolling videos for you: http://www.wisconsinpaddlers.org/videos.htm
Of course coming from an acrobat background, you probably have strength and flexibily that I could only dream of. 
thanks again guys
You have given me some great resouces. Dr Disco that is not the first time I have been told to remove the back rest I will surely look into it. Thanks again, I have some research to do unitl the waters warm up.
Thanks for that link
I must admit that my focus has been surf and while I roll several ways, this stuff is very cool!! Makes me want to go try some of those. Impressive stuff.