3rd year
I was able to roll on the 3rd year after taking up kayaking.
Each year I would take a lesson or two at the beggining of the season, then go off and enjoy the season wether I could roll or not.
To this day I don’t really believe I have a bomb proof roll(i don’t even really like that phrase) though I’m sure I’ve rolled a 100+ times.
Sometimes I’ll go out to practice rolling much like someone would say I’m going out for a swim.
but
far different than rolling in a panic situation where you are getting tossed around by the seas far from shore.
For me it is panic management, others don’t really have that “panic factor” to deal with.
I certainly was running class 2+ stuff in a rec boat before I said you know I should really get a boat that I could learn how to roll and wouldn’t sink like I stone if I flipped.
I was 18 years old
before my first roll. She was a beautiful Greek girl that I met in college.
Ahhh!
“Old fat guys with beer guts have the hardest time learning the screw roll.”
Now yer tell me…
FE
An’ ah’ be an eye witness ta dat
Seen Hackyak do it. Got video of it. He be no liar - an ornery polecat maybe, but no liar.
FE
Rolls in the hay don’t count
another incentive…
Unintentional swimming is not fun in whitewater, tide races, nor surf.
My first combat roll was in surf and it felt so much better than the wet exits I had done earlier that day.
This past season was really my first dedicated ww paddling. I swam twice. It was not fun. My roll became more reliable. On one of my last runs of the Sac, I capsized exiting a squirrely eddy near the lower large feature(s). My roll there was exhilerating. A fellow paddler who watched said “That was the most triumphant roll I’ve seen.” And, you know, it felt that way.
Though sucess is the best incentive, you have to be willing to fail in order to improve.
Not long
About 10mins into our float,nasty class III.
My first ever roll was
in my 24 inch wide Tsunami 140 on a lake on my 6th attempt. I immediately capsized on the other side. I was too tired to try any more. this was 2 summers ago (2006).
I had spent many hours reading books, watching videos on the net and reading net articles prior to attempting. I did not count this as knowing how to roll.
My next attempts were 6 months (winter 06/07) later at 2 pool sessions with guidance and critique by fellow kayakers.
I was able to hit rolls 85% - 90% of the time. When I did missed, I was able to reset up to 2 more times and roll up.
I still did not this as having a roll. This was demonstrated by the unsuccesful rolls and wet exits when I unexpectedly capsized twice “in the wild”
Spring 07 I switched to a Greenland paddle and was able to “muscle up” a roll on the second attempt. This was a roll with really bad technique that used up alot of energy.
I recently got new boat that I had at pool session yesterday. After confirming that I could reliably perform a wet exit, I attempted a roll and blew it.
With a little guidance I hit 90% of the rolls from my second attempt on.
When I miss a roll now, I know what I did wrong.
I feel that I still have a lot of technique to improve on.
I am registered to take a two session (a week apart) rolling clinic.
As someone pointed out, there are diffent learning styles. I like to understand the details and the reason for a particular technique before I try it.
Bottom line is don’t be afraid to try any new skill. Get over being embarrassed by your lack of ability and listen to others with experience. We did not come out of the womb knowing how to roll. In fact there is nothing natural about being upside down with your legs stuck in a yak.
Art
three years and a dozen sessions
I darn near gave up on it. I took lessons from someone who was determined that C to C was the only proper roll. I am so short torsoed that it was injury provoking… moreover I am left handed and prefer to tuck to the right and that was not proper either. The instrutor could not adapt to that.
It took me four or five instructors before one clicked and then it was 45 seconds to the first success. By then I had learned that for me, C to C was not going to be a success.
However the rust has set in since.,.its NOT like learning to bicycle I fear
Here we go …
OK now it’s going to get interesting…
Learning to defend yourself?
We like to think that we all might have the rudimentary skills to defend ourselves in a fair fight. (what part of the word fight conflates with fair anyway?) So you’ve learned to roll; so what! I can defend myself; so what! When either of us meets that 800 lb proverbial gorilla in the form of Mr. Kickass champion or 6’ breaking waves pushing your boat into the rocks, all bets are off, way off.
I learned to roll and practice regularly to save my life. However if I’m ever in conditions that are too much for my skill set i.e. way over my head so to speak, it won’t be my roll that might fail, it would have been my judgment. Keep practicing your roll, but unless you are willing to do it in the conditions you normally paddle in, you’re demonstrating some interesting party tricks.
Please excuse the frequent and mixed metaphors and know that this is just targeting those who may in their enthusiasm confuse the ability to roll with inherent safety.
It’s Not A “Race…”
I have said all along, however, long it takes to improve and make progress. You don't discourage people from making an effort. To say to someone that you haven't met "a big enough bomb" is, to me, again discouraging effort to improve, rationalize by the notion that a roll can never be that reliable.
I have worked with folks on different sports stuff. They have different styles and progression rates. What impresses me most often is the mindset underlying the effort. But that may be just me and what I value.
sing
Everyone else is sleeping Fat Elmo
or maybe it was not as funny as I thought.
That’s a good analogy
I like that comparison. I think “self defense” classes are very over-rated for the reason you say, and Im sure it is very much the same with rolling. It’s like the people who say they’ve rolled a few hundred times and admit they can’t count on it when they need it. Back to the self-defense thing, I practiced tae-kwon-do dilegently for many years, and we would often do each of the basic kicks a couple of hundred times per session. Yet no matter how perfect my technique at individual motions, never have I thought it was all so automatic for me that I could fight well with those skills. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and I really developed precise control of a number of the kicks that would be “most reliable” in an actual fight, but my brain really doesn’t process things in the same way that a good fighter would do, and so I’d never be good at sparring. I bet the same goes for “combat rolls”. Some people probably have more of an aptitude for quick and instinctual adaptation of what they know to the particular circumstance, and thus can recover from a flip in all sorts of severe circumstances, while others might be more technically perfect, but are less able to cope with what Nature throws at them.
Usually about 3-5 seconds
I’ll slow it down when practicing.
Oh - you meant to learn initially. That took me about 4-5 sessions - SOLO - these being usually only about 1/2 hour sessions - often months apart - strung over about a year on the calendar - but only about 3 hours in the water (3 less than efficient hours with most spent thinking, swimming, pumping…).
Then there were the 3-4 hours watching videos - and a lot of Internet time…
I wanted the roll - and never doubted “if” - only when. I was in no hurry (warm waters lessen any urgency factor).
Being alone and having to punch out every time limited how long I could keep at it effectively (and where and when I was comfortable practicing). One time I had another bow to grab and not having to exit I could do 10x the attempts before tiring - which made all the difference. At the end of a play day I tried rolling a different kayak - and the change in feel was just enough to get me to stop thinking so much and switch to just feeling what was going on. That’s when things clicked. Things I immediately was able to repeat in my kayak, and then others later.
oh no
just because somebody doesn't have a strong roll doesn't mean they shouldn't try and certainly I agree that the best, if not the only way, to really develope a roll that is effective in conditions is to go out in the surf and unintentionally capsize(doesn't have to be surf, can be WW on a river or other rough water)---
surf and ww rolling are physically very similar to doing it in a pool or other flat water---the biggest difference is emotional and overcoming our panic and you're right the only way to do that is in conditions and where your capsize is unintended.
All that said, nobody has an absolutly perfect roll---although I will admit sings comes close
two sessions
To GET one. More individual practice to perfect, more to get a reentry and roll, more to get an offside roll, more to get a reverse sweep roll. More real-time practice to get a roll in conditions. And I have to practice them all or I lose them (which I found out last weekend in the pool).
For me those two sessions were enough to get me on my own. Even as a lifelong swimmer, being submerged upside-down created some unnecessary anxiety, and nowadays when I'm tired or out of practice, I tend to forget form and muscle it up a bit too much.
It's funny what a mental game it is. This weekend I was practicing the r&r, including putting on the spray deck while upside down. I suddenly noticed I had a serenity and complete lack of urgency about me I'd never would have had if I didn't practice this stuff.
My view is it only takes a few lessons to get you started, enough to counter the anxiety. It might take a bit longer to recognize the need for practice.
about a year
Took a class. Didn’t get it down that night. Tried on my own in pool sessions. Ugly results (the paddle dove). Watched a video. No luck. Watched another (EJ’s) and bingo, I rolled!
Also, even though some say you shouldn’t do it, practicing with a paddle float helped me get a feel for where the paddle was supposed to be. To counteract the muscle-memory of the diving blade.
4 years
seriously.
paddling rivers was waaaaayyyy more fun.
taught myself.
steve
it’s a skill
but it’s your judgement that is most likely the factor that this skill becomes a necessity.
Hopefully the skill is up to the judgement.