Bad habits tho’
No need to pop your head up when sculling up, and creates bad habits for the roll. I know - I have to keep undoing that one. Best all around to practice the same kind of recovery sculling up as when rolling - just do it slower.
Maybe I Misspoke
– Last Updated: Mar-04-07 4:07 PM EST –
Mistyped? Poorly worded.
Sculling is moving the blade backward and forward, right? Well what I did last pool session was something like a two-stage sweep roll. First I did a standard sweep with my head finishing down and way back. Rather than come up with some downward pressure on the paddle and hip snap (boat twist) I stayed in the water. The next stage was just to angle the paddle the other way and sit up sweeping the blade forward. There was so much lift from the paddle when I did this it was shocking. I could finish the roll comfortably... in slow motion... sitting straight up.
I don't think practicing this new thing will detract from my reliable sweeps or C to Cs.
Thanks: chin pointing up.
I need to remember the first suggestion; looking up and back. Or as Dubside says it, chin pointing up.
Paul S.
sinking balance brace
Celia’s post covered what to do.
I would add, kick your head back until the water is right onside your face. I push wih my left foot on the peg, pushing the hull back towards it’s floating position.
Most people can’t do a balance brace without additional flotation - a paddle, pdf or tuleg. According to your body type and upper body weight, those objects will be enough or not. Many excellent male paddlers with big upper body types will never be able to balance since the large PFD flotation is still only 16 lbs. A thin person or small women has a much higher PFD flotation ratio. Many small women can just float on their back while in the boat doing nothing with a pfd on. And a tuleg adds way more flotation than a pfd. A light Greenland paddle also has more boyancy than a Euro. I can just pull it off in the pool but in salt water there’s a lot more boyancy and I do it much easier. If you have someone hold you, you can wiggle and arch as hard as you can and keep that paddle in the water. When I have trouble, I also twist myself in the seat first so I’m doing more of a back bend than side bend which helps with flexability.
No problemo.
I took a chapter from Derrick’s blog and some advice from Kwikle. First I kinda run through everything I know how to do. If something feels off, I run through that until it feels right again. Then I go for things I kinda know or would like to, and if I fail at them, I go back through those gateway moves and tricks until I can work up to my next big thing. For example, with the angel roll, I practice balance bracing with paddle in the outboard hand. This is also the second half of the angel roll recovery. For the first part of the recovery, I do the same move in reverse then let the boat roll over on me until I’m upside down and curled looking at my paddle at the surface (thanks to Roy). This is also the setup position when you’re topside. I then use the body memory I just received to come up. Once these gateway techniques feel 100%, I go to a full angel roll start to finish until it feels 100%.
I usually wrap up by doing the moves I just learned start to finish; wrapping up with my successes just feels good. Then it’s play time with the kids until someone kicks me out. 
Jim
Well, it is a strange difference
When I finish a normal roll I feel sort of surprised to be upright again, but when I finish a roll with a transition to a skull, and I mean a continuity of skulling strokes, I feel much more in control. Now perhaps it is only a distraction that will feel much less appealing in rough water and bad conditions.
Torso at right angles to kayak?
How important is it to get your torso perpendicular to the kayak and arch right over the side of the coaming, verses partly across the back deck? I think of the former as a more advanced version of the latter, but not sure. I’m not yet good at (read flexible enough) making an L-shape with my legs and torso and twisting my torso around so that my shoulders are flat on the water. Working on it.
I think in Dubside’s video he’s laying across the back deck some on static brace and side scull.
Paul S.
I found it easier
to just lay off the rear deck when learning how to side scull and balance brace. As I got more comfortable and developed better technique I was able to swing out from the kayak and side scull and balance brace. It’s amazing how awkward and uncomfortable many of the greenland skills can feel when you first try them, then after time it seems to just fall into place like you could always do it.
Depends on person and boat
I know this is going to seem stupidly simple, but the balance brace is more about finding the balance itself than the specifics of the paddler position. Body weight proportion and boat in the right combination can make it easy to stay close to the boat, or can dictate that you will need to have a lot of your back on the water to be in balance.
I am one of those for whom the torso support is easy because I am an average sized not overweight female, so granted have more wiggle room than a really densely muscled guy. But even for me, I can be just about anywhere I want and lay there all day in the slab-sided Explorer LV, but have to be fairly picky about extension over the water and a further boat tilt to hold it in my Vela.
Go for the feeling of support and comfort first using whatever necessary support aids, somewhere in there you’ll find the position you need.
Thanks Jay! I’ll blame the gym! NM
Sorry then
I got it - was not thinking of what you describe.
The diff between the end of a scull and the end of a roll, unless you are talking about a very centered and fast CtoC roll, can get awfully hard to talk about because there isn’t much. I didn’t realize how grey this area was until I took a Greenland rolling class and they made me slow down rather than just get to a point and throw a big kick to get things going. It really makes you realize that there is a continuum of this motion out there, not just separate acts.
(It also made me realize that I wasn’t quite as strrengthened up as I thought… small youch on my abs the next day)
Yes… Greenland
Bill Bremer who made my greenland paddle came to our pool session several times. A couple of things he said stuck.
“You don’t need a hip snap.”
“Slow it down.”
I guess it was those two things that got me to try the forward sweep thing. Tomorrow night is a pool session and I hope I can repeat that roll.
No! Not Technique Technique…
Had a very good pool session last night. I’m so glad I don’t spend the whole time trying to perfect one roll or another. Trying new stuff pays off.