Yes! Yes! Yes!
Thanks.
One very non-elitist thing I left out
A big reason I learned to roll is that I’m LAZY (ask anyone who knows me)! The other recoveries are too slow, complicated, and tiring.
Rolling is quick and EASY. No climbing, slipping, or precarious balancing, no pumping out, no extra gear to access and stow, no issues of keeping boat/paddle/float all under control through it all.
I suspect if the non-rollers actually did enough rescue practice of the various the out of boat techniques to become reasonably proficient at them (not once a year on flat water) they would get MUCH more interested in rolling.
Since I can’t roll yet
I’m not a sea kayaker?
Funny. I feel the same way about folks who are on the water that haven’t passed the NavRules test, attended and passed an extended (meaning more than a few hours) boating/kayaking course and aren’t certified on how to properly operate a VHF-FM radio. You really shouldn’t be on the water.
greyak your pretty cool
greyak I agree with you and I think your pretty cool!! Maby I will see you in the surf someday.
Eye of the beholder
Non-paddlers who see someone in a 17 ft plus kayak with full deck rigging and some amount of shit on top, paddles or whatever, out on a large ocean bay will call that a sea kayaker.
Someone who also has a 17 ft plus kayak with rigging etc and can roll, who sees paddler number one flip over and attempt a paddle float self-rescue in 3 ft waves would probably call them a rec boat paddler in a sea kayak.
And if someone who was a top end coach came along and saw that paddler number 2 was unable to help paddler number 1 because they couldn’t do a rescue in conditions, they’d probably figure both of them were more entry level paddlers.
Not that rec boats don’t fill their niche very nicely, or that the paddler who can roll up is necessarily more brilliant. (Coaches are always smarter, right?) The paddlers just have real different assumptions about what necessary to kayak in the sea.
So - I wonder what percentage of people who paddle on the sea, as in ocean or really big stuff like the Great Lakes, consider a roll to be a necessary thing?
But with a skeg or a rudder?
I do not roll. Not yet anyway.
I own a kayak, but certainly wouldn’t call myself a kayaker…
This is from a complete newbie’s perspective. I don’t even know what a roll is yet, but if it means righting myself after tipping over without having to get out, then I am all for it. I personally consider this a requisite skill. Not having to do a roll because you didn’t tip over is better, but unrealistic where I want to go.
So to answer your question, I do not roll. Not yet anyway, but I plan on working at it until I can do it with simple muscle memory.
So THAT’S what SOT stands for! L
Crap on deck’s another topic good for some differing opinions and maybe getting some to reassess the way they do things.
Actually, most frequent question…
We live in a metropolitan area.
Often there are two boats on the car, some combination of the Aquanaut, Romany, Explorer LV, and/or Vela.
Strangers spotting the boats most often ask “Aren’t they dangerous?”
I most often answer “Yes.”
That Was A Good One Celia
I chuckled at first read and then after thinking about it thought you were likely correct.
Mark
I can roll…
but I am a canoe sort of guy.
nice idea
appeal to paddlers, and therefore people’s sense of laziness!
Except that learning to roll isn’t easy for most folks.
SOTS should take over the earth
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Since SOTS are actually much safer, at least in warm waters, at least those without high decks, because THEY, unlike the blessed SEA KAYAKS can be gotten back ONTO by a capsized paddler, don't require a spray skirt, paddlers don't go upside down and suffocate in them, and don't need recovery skills, a pump, paddle float, etc.
For the masses of folks who neither care nor want all the enthusiast stuff, for families, kids, etc. woudn't if be safer than the current industry standard of promoting the wide rec boat with no floatation, high windage, and the lure these boats hold out to novices as they emerge from Wal Mart being told OK head out onto the big lakes and ocean you are all set!
Really, not a dig a recreation boats, if people knew their limits and strengths, just like the real limits of sea kayaks, wouldn't SOTS serve better, since SO FEW PLACES OFFER TO TELL PEOPLE OF THE LIMITS OF REC BOATS AND OFFER SOTS AS AN ALTERNATIVE?
Disclaimer: I believe personally there are NO BAD BOATS, just lack of knowledge about each boats pluses and minuses. So please in advance, not a rant against any one kind of boat.
Not always…
We weren’t there to see this last July, it happened the week that my sister and her husband came into the place we split rent on in Maine. But apparently a couple from another of the cabins went out to an island about a half mile or so offshore (shouldn’t have done that - it’s a river mouth that way as well) she in a Swifty and he on a basic SOT that they’d come up with from somewhere.
He flipped over, and couldn’t figure out how to get back onto the SOT atall. They paddled back in with the wife paddling the Swifty and towing the SOT, with the husband hanging onto the end of the SOT. Never occurred to either of them for him to swim up onto the SOT, and between her skills and the boat she was in it wouldn’t have been prudent for her to try and help much.
No pics, but someone should have given an award to the wife on that one. I’m not sure how well I’d have done with that arrangement for half a mile.
coaches are not always smarter
I’ve had to help a few more “experienced” paddlers while out surfing. A coaching certification doesn’t make one infallible. But nor does experience and skills make one a good instructor.
I still
– Last Updated: May-15-06 9:01 AM EST –
say rolling ain't gonna make a hill of beans difference when you're out in a navigable waterway and a tug pushing barges is coming at you and you can't reach then because you have no radio.
Rolling isn't going to matter if something happens to you or the boat, you can't make it back or a are going to be late and you didn't bother to give anyone a float plan.
Rolling really isn't going to help if you can't read a chart, compass, or GPS properly.
You can still get hyperthermia -sitting- in a kayak if you haven't dressed right.
I'm thinking there are so many other "basic" things that one should know how to do before working on that bomb proof roll. How about bracing and a mean wet exit/re-entry? Rolling will come in time, but it's not the be all end all, you can never paddle in the ocean, go float around in the kiddie pool skill.
Some of you don't sound elitist, just pretty darn snooty, as if you should be drinking with your pinkies up. ;)
Of course, that's just my opinion :P
They won’t leak…
though they will account for at least half the weight of the boat 
Rolling will come in time…
“Rolling will come in time, but it’s not the be all end all”
Very true. This is why skill levels as defined by the BCU or ACA are skill SETS.
I had much more big water experience, skill, and knowldege before I could roll than most paddlers I know who had a roll long before me.
I think it is important to be mindful that having to roll is a sign of failure. Rolling is the final brace when all others fail.
Choosing to roll is another matter.
called a continuous storm roll
on the Walden pond site…they have three doing it at the same time.
Actually a pretty easy roll to do. set the paddle in the same place every time and figure out exactly where your hand has to come up to hit it and you’re up…
Paul
Rolling is a “gateway” skill
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It was not until I learned to reliably roll that I had the confidence to practice -- and really learn -- bracing, edging, and other very necessary skills. Without a reliable roll, I knew that, if I pushed myself, I would "swim" and be in for a (comparatively) lengthy paddle float rescue. Since learning to roll reliably 3 years ago, I am now no longer afraid to "push" myself in learning new techniques and paddling in new conditions. I know that, when I fail in any attempt, I will be back up in a matter of several seconds and can try again. Not surprisingly, I have learned several times more in the 3 years I have been rolling than in the 7 years of paddling prior to rolling.
Safe and Fun Paddling!