No one is perfect…
Acknowledging that even very good paddlers sometimes fail to roll is letting someone know that if they fail to roll it does not mean the end of their progression or success.
I think the sense that nearly anyone can roll and that anyone who can roll can get better at rolling is positive.
I’m a bit of an analytical blockhead…
It took me two or three sessions with experienced coaches to teach me to roll along with countless hours watching videos and reading books on the subject. Apparently I’m a fairly analytical person so I spent lots of time at home trying to visualize and understand what was going on. Of course it took me thousands of rolls to have a decent roll that I could trust and a few trips down whitewater to get a solid combat roll.
I think the reason I love teaching rolling so much is that I see myself in many of my students. I intimately understand the feelings of frustration and confusion that go with rolling as well as the mental handicap that comes with an analytical mind.
The funny thing is that each year, I evaluate my rolling skills and think I’m hot stuff and each subsequent year I look back and realize that I didn’t know very much at all. Still learning…
I definitely don’t hold the record for
being able to roll the quickest.
I rolled in my first lessons with GRO at the schoolcraft pool.
But it took me another 6 months to get it. And then another year to roll reliably in surf. So that’s about 18 months. I taught a friend about my age to roll and he rolled in about 5 sessions. Then he started rolling in surf that same summer. For him it was quick.
I’m sure there are LOTS of folks who can pool/pond roll some or all of the competition rolls who consider themselves excellent paddlers too.
There’s more to paddling than rolling, and more to rolling than just doing it on flat water.
Hey Jay
The local paddle shop sponsored pool sessions at a nice indoor pool. The price was dirt cheap ... $5 and the instructor was whoever the shop could scrounge up who knew how to roll. One guy would teach C to C and another taught the screw roll. Nobody taught a layback. All but a couple of the boats were flat-bottomed. I asked if I could bring my sea kayak and they said no.
Only Euro paddles were there.
I walked away with a $5 roll but bought a video and kept at it. Happy to say I've made a lot of progress since then.
Despair
I’m teaching a fellow biker-turning-sea-kayaker to roll. He keeps saying “y’all make it look so easy!”
I keep saying “but we’ve been working at this for several years.”
Wednesday night will be session #4 for him. I hope he gets his first roll. And if he doesn’t roll I hope he doesn’t get discouraged.
Similar, actually…
in that you fall back to the level of your discipline, intensity and mindset in training. That applies to both the gorilla and 6’ waves.
sing
Mighty fine video.
Love the music and the editing and underwater footage.
Am I to understand that Maddie, the athletic 13 year old, immediately got an offside roll, too? Sinful.
(P.S. Do tell: what camera and editing software you using? Looks superb, even under water.)
Is it 5 years and counting?
After my latest class with Turner & Cheri, I really think I’m close. Turner asked me after class whether Cheri told me that I rolled. She didn’t, so, I’m calling it “not yet”, although I could swear I did do some not so proper rolls.
Lou
Not that long Lou
You started these posts not far behind my getting at least a low percentage in the Squall, and the Explorer came not far behind that. So I doubt it’s five years for you, really.
screw roll?
(sorry)
Don’t Despair
I did my first rolls a couple of weeks back. I had tried a number of times to teach myself to roll, but one session with my new GP and a coach and I had it in about 45 minutes. I had the same feeling that it looked easy, and once I rolled about the 5th time I realized it is easy. Hopefully your friend sticks with it and doesn’t get discouraged because that first time you realize you’re safely upright is pretty exciting and after that it’s just plain fun.
Two pool sessions
First pool session I had no results. I then pondered my errors for a week and at the next pool session tried my theory. It worked. For me the critical issue is the initial outward sweep. Some people barely mention the initial outward sweep but for me it is the critical difference between almost certain success and almost certain failure. After watching and assisting other rollers I now believe it should be stressed much more. It is the difference between a strong roll and a weak roll. Get that paddle out and away from the boat.
2 days
It took me 1 weekend. I went and bought dubside
dvd, greenland paddle and 2 days of practice.
By the end of the weekend I was rolling. Now
I'am trying to get a reliable/solid hand roll
that I can count on, for now I have to wait till
spring for lakes to thaw.
it’s easy
when you’re doing it right! 
is that you, Jay Babina?!
Someone looked it up
I remember the last time I was raked over the coals about not getting a roll yet, someone had done an archive search and claimed to have found a 5 year old post about it. I just took his word for it, although it sounds right, as my boat is about four years old, and I’m pretty sure I took some pool classes (and even a rolling clinic) before I bought my boat, which might put it at 5.
Lou
no - I’m a pre-Dubside relic
Cheri Perry taught me the extended paddle roll 17 yrs ago - I did my first in an hour but many years of practice to get to where it was a non-thinking act - like everyone.
Maybe earlier than I noticed
I definately wasn’t aware of anything from you before you had the Nighthawk. If it helps though, I wouldn’t count that early class. You didn’t have your boat yet so could not have practiced it to keep it. And you hadn’t really figured out how to use a paddle yet so any roll you hit was going to be more about dumb luck than “having” a roll.