No Brag, No Lie.
My bike / kayak buddies and I got a fellow road biker to roll last night for the first time. It was at the beginning of his 4th pool session. He was getting discouraged but now he’s high as a kite.
He’s already talking about a nicer boat. A Greenland paddle has got to be on his wish list, also.
And Recluse got to witness the event! Good to see you, Bill.
No Lie…
Yep… It was hard to tell who was the most excited, Rex or Mark, but it was Rex I heard shouting from across the pool. : )
Fifth Try…
…on a windy day on the lee side of a big gravel barge on Lake Washington. I remembered reading Derek Hutchinson’s book almost 20 years ago, and the rolling part stuck in my brain for some reason. I decided to go out and give it a shot, and got it my fifth attempt. Since then, switching to a GP has given me all kinds of new thrills with all the various rolling options.
first roll
Learning to roll was easy, even without a teacher. The hardest part of rolling for me, was disciplining myself to practice regularly. Once I got past that hurdle, everything fell in to place.
Remember the only difference between an expert, and a novice is that the expert practices and the novice talks about practicing. So Practice, Practice, practice.
Michael
I can relate to this
"…prefer to see it as some difficult act - some Holy Grail or major achievement - and this causes them to take a more difficult path…"
I’m sure I do that.
But sometimes I have to remind myself, I did the same thing about college. I couldn’t go to college because I wasn’t smart enough. I just knew I’d fail.
Then I decided to suck it up and just TRY. Ended up carrying a solid 3.0 GPA while attending full-time and working 30 hours a week. Not too bad. (“If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.”)
Now if I could just wrap my head around rolling the same way, and get out of that Holy Grail mindset…
The habit of practicing…
is not difficult for someone who takes a while to get the roll.
took me seven years!
I never had a lesson up to that time in 1993. Now I’m able to do a handful of greenland rolls.
So don’t be discouraged. Do I hold the record for longest time to learn?
I think so
Looks like Lou has lost his position!
Mastered the “Half-Roll” quickly
I really do work on techniques.
I even attempted to learn to roll with my big-cockpit Old Town Adventure XL 139. All I could master (but did it very well) was the “Half-Roll”, since, without ANY thigh-brace, I ALWAYS separated from the boat. All that resulted was a wet exit.
I wonder …Can ANYONE roll an Old Town Adventure XL 139?
Now that you asked…
It’s a challenge - so someone will find that boat and try.
controlled breathing
Using this “technique” can calm you in almost any situation, even if you’re out of breath. I use it when I’m biking, running, paddling, exercising.
If you consciously begin by taking a “signature” breath - first slow, big breath - and add something else, like blinking your eyes deliberately, or focusing on nothing, after awhile just taking the first signature breath and blinking your eyes/focusing on nothing calms you significantly because of the association.
When I’m rolling in a pool I use it. When I have an unexpected or unrehearsed roll not in controlled conditions, I just take a minute to close and open my eyes and it starts the calming effect.
I was a skeptic on this until I started using and developing it.
So far…
Yep, it sounds like RichW has me beat so far, but I haven’t rolled yet, so I still have a shot at the record. Cheri didn’t say that I rolled at my last class, and Turner told me that she always tells you when you got one.
I promise, I will do my best to become the person who took the second longest time to roll.
Lou
from the looks of it - no problem
I haven’t tried but it shouldn’t be any harder than a re-entry and roll in a WS Northstar.
If you can roll one kayak you can roll lots. The differences between rolling most kayaks is a few pounds of pressure, slight modification to technique, and tweaking the timing.
No place to brace one’s thighs
The opening of the Adventure XL 139 Kayak is so large that there is no place to brace one’s thighs (at least I couldn’t). Then again I cannot roll anything completely except my Ford Explorer (but that is a completely different story).