This is a good video on how to do a Greenland roll.
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I’m going to parrot my earlier suggestion with more specificity since you’re getting a float — you’d really benefit from the Standard Greenland Roll progression and drills featured in This Is the Roll 1. The treatment of paddle float as “avataq” is more useful with a Greenland paddle than attaching the float to your blade, in my experience. Everybody’s body and mind reacts differently to learning these skills so throw this in with the bag of info and opinions other smart forumers are throwing at you.
I also love Kent Ford’s “The Kayak Roll” for euroblades but if you’re just starting, they can feel like entirely different techniques, down to the torso’s setup position (lean forward and down to the deck, or twist to the rail and down?). With time you’ll realize they’re all based on the same principles but if you’re self teaching, best to pick a lane.
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Thank You Rex, That is exactly what I meant. {I had given up on how to explain my simple, to me, comment}
what kayak are you paddling ?
Random club kayaks, preferably anything low and narrow for this purpose, there’s a Tahe Greenland I’m most often paddling if it’s available. Have to decide what kind of kayak I’ll buy for myself, not hurrying yet with that one as I just started early this month 
(likely something narrow and long and seaworthy)
Bought it. Great video. Will practice the drills this weekend.
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Tahe GL good boat to roll , i bet i can still hand roll one if i blow up my drysuit first
Be firm but gentle. Keep us posted.
Today, progress!
I found someone at the club who was willing to come practice with me (and practice his own rolls too). I took the paddle float with me and practiced finishing, ending up both at the rear and front decks… opening up my body backwards onto the back deck, and curling towards the front deck. It was awesome being able to succeed and not swim & rescue all the time like last time. It also helped seeing my mate roll successfully… easier to believe this is something anyone can learn.
Kayak fit was a bit problematic though, I first took the Norse Bylgja but as I couldn’t bend backwards onto the back deck (seat too far back, hard and high coaming) nothing worked out. Switched to another kayak (boreal design baffin p2), layback was easier but the boat was way too wide and I ended up sitting on the corner of the seat after righting. I’m around 6’4" and quite thin and most kayaks are either way too wide or my legs don’t fit inside.
Going to test paddle a kayak tomorrow, it’s a “DD Spectre MV”, fairly low and around 21" wide, need to get my own kayak one day.
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Some more practice today. Recovery to both back and front deck with a paddle float feels kind of OK now. Paddle float slips quite easily off the skinny stick so I hope to get rid of it soon. I ended up swimming once after my paddle float slipped off the blade…
I’m having a hard time with the club kayaks. Kayaks that can fit my legs are way too wide and I get no hip support at all, and kayaks just the right width are so tiny that even my heels hit the front bulkhead. In the long enough kayaks I only get support at my feet and knees and I’m not sure I’m learning the right things by being able to work with my knees and feet and upper body only. I don’t quite have the courage to try without a paddle float in a boat I fall off too easily.
The kayak I tested at the shop last weekend was nice, it felt just right, narrow and stable. The flat hull needs some getting used to, goes straight with some skeg though.
Are you using a paddle float with dual air chambers? Curious, as I have one and when both chambers are inflated it doesn’t come off my Greenland paddle.
If you can find some pieces of minicell foam sheet about 3/4-1 inch thick you can cut some to size to use as temporary hip pads in a boat that provides no hip support. If the club allows use duct tape to secure them. Otherwise just tuck them in between your hips and the side walls of the seat pan. They will slip right out if you need to wet exit.
single chamber… it’s made for euro blades though, there’s a retaining strap but the float isn’t long enough for the strap to grab the tapering part of the blade. It’s kind of tight but I think when I lost the float I had the other end of the blade submerged so the float just flew away. For self rescues the float is fine, tried that too.
I’m not too worried about the float, I just need to fill it up as much as I can and tie the strap real tight when using it.
pblanc, I’ll try the foam sheet approach too in the meantime I don’t have my own boat for hip support, that’s a good idea.
How old is the paddle float. I haven’t seen a single chamber paddle float in years. I thought pretty much all manufacturers went to dual chambers for safety reasons. I’ve seen several paddle floats partially fail when an inflator tube or valve failed.
Plenty of single chambers still on the market, but the dual chambers are the best bang for your buck.
While they’re all sized for euro paddles, mine fits securely around my GP as well as my euro.
I just started learning how to roll. I thought about trying to do it on my own but instead I’ve taken a few lessons with competent instructors. I have to say that having them by my side gave me a degree of comfort and confidence that I wasn’t going to die stuck upside down in my kayak. I think that having them assist and provide constructive criticism expedited my learning. One valuable thing that the instructors did was to progressively lower me into the water which allowed me to focus on technique without being fully submerged at first and then increasingly submerged and then eventually completely upside down. It was also helpful to have them provide support while working on my hip snap. After three lessons, I feel that I have the basic technique down and can go it alone.
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ok it’s going better now. There was no indoor pool practice last winter for obvious reasons. Last winter I bought my own kayak (nice touring sea kayak, also narrow with a low back deck). Recently we did a few drills on a beach with a few friends from the club and after three training sessions I could reliably pull off a basic layback roll on one side, the other side is weaker and needs some more practice. Hope I find companions to practice reverse sweep on the beach as well. I think having solid layback roll and reverse sweep would help practice the other rolls so I’d have a reliable way to recover. The “This is the roll” videos have been immensely helpful.
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Great! On top of making you safe out there on the water… it can be a lot of fun.
TITR video is great. My go to roll even with a greendland stick . Do not need toextend the paddle using that technique. It is fast roll.
Have fun… butterfly layback ?
Peace J
It’s been a great few days at a lakeside cabin with my family. My courageous wife has been helping me practice rolls – today I pulled off my first reverse sweep rolls, on the third day of practicing it. Also I tried the crooked elbow roll (like layback roll but with sweep hand replaced with a crooked elbow) and coult do it on the first try on both sides. this is fun!!
One thing to note though. TITR and other sources emphasize technique over just muscling it, but this doesn’t imply the correct technique would not involve applying actual force somewhere. This is not surprising though when considering that in my case any roll is about righting a capsized 160lb man on a 50lb kayak…
my plan for the next few days while still at the cabin – work on the reverse sweep to make it more reliable, same with layback roll. Hopefully storm roll this summer as well.
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On your layback most of the “muscling” is using your legs to come up. Your paddle (while sweeping from your body rotation) is in a near fixed position with your hands near/next to your chest/PFD. Technique is important for style points. However most importantly, practical points means you are again in a high oxygen environment! Well done.
Have you had to do any combat rolls yet?
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