I am looking forward to an exciting upcoming season paddling wise full of many exciting opportunities to learn and improve my skills with certified instructors and other paddlers, but I am also feeling a little hesitant with what I am seeing more and more online social media platforms every day, especially with many ACA instructors, who are espousing endless references to current happenings in the political world. I know there is such a thing called free speech, but as a potential person who is looking to join the community and spend my money on instruction and possibly attend clinics or symposiums, I am really starting to feel that if my views differ from theirs than I will be unwelcomed.
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Learning through instruction is faster than learning on your own. However, itâs not a necessity.
I learned all aspects of paddling on my own.
Iâm a slow learner, but when I get it, I get it âreal goodâ.
It took me about a summer to learn the roll (about 40 years ago), but, so far, I havenât had to bail out (actually, did have to, once - in my 2nd paddling year) (you know the saying: âWeâre all in between swimsâ - Iâm still waiting for my 2nd one).
Anyway, if you arenât comfortable with organized lessons (for whatever reason), get help from folks you paddle with, books, experience, etc.
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Very simple, only take kayak lessons from those that are also Gun Instructors.
Since politics in the USA are so polarized, the only solution is to not talk politics unless that is the purpose of the gathering. Many of us have learned this and can interact with the opposite side of the political spectrum only in that way. Opponents across the political spectrum still have many other good things to share.
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Sound like narrow minded woke culture shut down free speech. The only speech allowed is what emotionally limited listeners will tolerate. Their mantra is âIâm right, youâre wrong, admit it, and shut up!â
Politics and religion views have no place in learning or having fun with other people. Life is too short.
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Well yes and no.
I had no person to person instruction ever , but I looked at every video I could find and I worked on the tips as well as joining âDancing with the Seaâ and having Paulo teach me with vids and a few phone calls. Now I have a method I am using and teaching to a few others, that seems to work very well.
What is really relieving is that it took me 2 years to learn but now that I understand the roll and can see the things that cause it to fail, I have taught 7 others to roll too, and of that 7 Iâve taught, 3 of them learned to roll in less than 1 hour. So yes you can âteach yourselfâ as I did, but having one on one instruction is REALLY worth the time. My problem was an instructor was unavailable and one gal said sheâs teach for $250 an hour. I canât afford that, so I taught myself.
Compare my 2 years of learning to 1- to 4 hours of my friends learning from me, and youâll see how valuable it is to learn from someone that really knows what not to do. FunnyâŚlearning what NOT to do is key. The rolling itself is actually quite easy ------- once you get a feel for it but doing the wrong things is a block that requires months of constant practice to overcome.
Rolling is at least half mental. Maybe 3/4. Learning to be really comfortable with your head underwater is super important. Some people learn very quickly and some have a heck of a time getting comfortable, but once you are OK with being underwater and upside down it usually only takes 45 minutes to an hour for me to teach a roll to someone.
My fastest student (so far) was rolling in 20 minutes.
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Understand where you are coming from. Iâve found that during instruction and on the water there is very little discussion of politics, etc., and instructors (and students) stay professional. After hours, such as during symposiums, most folks still will avoid politics. Alcohol consumption may bring out a variety of unpleasantness; find someone else to talk to, thereâs always other folks to have a good conversation with.
If you are paying for instruction, their time belongs to you, feel free to explain that you donât want to hear their opinions, youâre there to have fun and learn.
Iâve learned a lot from ACA instructors. And have learned plenty from experienced folks with zero certifications. As you develop your skills, you will meet folks you want to paddle again with, and learn from them. And some not.
First, I dont tell.people how to vote, not even my kids. I do find it difficult to keep quiet when clueless sheep spout lies. Theyâre welcome to a view, but once that view is made public, itâs open for debate, and that is why some people want to shut down the conversation. Iâm still waiting for my forum detractors to answer my questions. Doesnt matter, because I consider that to be the answer. Now I keep performance data to myself, unless a new member asks a specific question. That doesnt hurt me; I just have more time to do other things, and it keeps those who donât care from reafing my drivel. They get to enjoy that warm fuzzy zone.
@szihn makes my point. Look how long it took him to learn how to roll, compared to how long it took the people he helped to learn. Thatâs what this firum is about, and then, maybe has nothing else to do but make stuff up. Sit back and read the posts and see who shuts down debated. See if @szihn ever shut down any content, or has anyone.tried to shut him down. Doesnât hurt Steve, because I think he is more interested in a balance debate for the undecided listener.
He has done more to help me than Iâve done to help him. Thatâs the reason for a bro-mance. I also agree with the posts that say, you arenât going to change my mind or anyone elseâs mind!" Because a person has to change his or her own mind, and that wonât happen until that person is willing to have an open mind. I had a boss who said, âDonât confuse me with logic, Iâve already made up my mind.â Yea uh!
I still donât know how to teach yourself without getting killed. You are going to make mechanical mistakes trying to figure things out, what happens when you get hung up under water, what happens then? In two years, I am sure there were rolls that werenât completed, what did you do?
Hi Mjac
PM me and letâs make a phone call. Iâll tell you want I have learned. Itâs almost embarrassing as to how easy the technique is ----------- considering how many times I tried and fails.
(I did get REALLY good at doing re-entries however)
You are paying someone $150 - $250 for kayak instruction and they start imposing their politics on you? That is not going to fly.
It took you two years, that donât sound easy to me.
@NDKlover, your hesitance is understandable and shared by many. It seems wherever we turn, weâre assaulted by the canned talking points of party hacks, hair-on-fire hyperbole from the so-called ânewsâ networks, and the legions of lyinâ cretins on social media.
For me, paddling is about recreation, health & fitness, and tranquility. I will not let these self-important gas bags pollute my time on the water.
⌠guess thatâs why I usually paddle alone, eh?
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Yes Mjacâ but now that I know how itâs taken my friends 1-3 hours under my instruction. All 7 of them.
It took me to years to learn all the bad things I was doing and to overcome them. Now I teach my friends and the kids from the local church to do a few things the very first time they get in a kayak and they just seem to do the roll easily because I donât need to make them un-learn the bad things. I had to un-learn.
TOTAL comfort with your head upside down under water is key. Relax and get comfy in the water. If you can turn and dive and float and all thatâŚand never feel stress the rolls will come in very little time. With me it was an up-hill climb because I DO NOT float well and so I had to overcome the inner fear of being under the surface. But I did and when that happened all the rest happened pretty fast and easily after.
My first experience in a kayak was a slalom style white water kayak that my brother owned. I knew nothing about kayaks and probably wasnât even wearing a PFD at the time, back then in the early 70s. The trial was in a still section of the river. Paddling it was like trying to steer a round washtub. Inevitably, it rolled. I tried a sweep to right myself and failed. When I tried to get out, my knees wouldnât bend enough for my legs to clear the coaming. By sweeping the paddle and twisting my torso, I coukd easily get a breath of air, then go back to upside down while holding my breath. Improving on the sweep stroke allowed me to resurface with ease buy it kept going full circle. Each time I surfaced, I caught another breath. I finally accepted inverted was the new norm, so I hung there contemplating an escape strategy, occasionaly twisting and sweeping to catch my breath to consuder a solution.
My problem was staying upright, not getting upright, because after righting the boat, it rolled ahain within a few strokes. I finally accepted that the only way to get out of the contraption was a scene from a WWII movie, where a pilot opened his canopy, rolled his burning fighter, and fell free. That works like a charm.
@szihn explained that I should have leaned forward or backward on the rear deck to stop.the roll. Despite the difficulty getting my legs to bend, I knew if I got into the cockpit, I could get out. A sweep with the paddle easily rotated me to the surface. Catching my breath was not a problem. I just got tire of hanging upside down.
I donât like tippy boats. I bought a boat that could keep me upright. It has never let me down. I see no reason to buy a boat thst pitches me into the water, and that is that. I canât think of any reason to panic if your kayak rolls, especially if your wearing a PFD.
When Steve listened as I describe the adventure, he made a good point: a kayak is designed to float upright. A PFD adds flotation and the outstretched paddle (one made of wood or designed with a foam core) provides leverage, floatation, and the blades give planing power.
If youâve seen Pauloâs video, you may have viewed the one with his kayak on its side, while holding the outstretched paddle, as he casually eats a power bar. If you canât right the kayak, think like a pilot in a buring fighter, and drop free, keep the grip on your. . paddle, and hold your breath until you break the surface, then do a remount.
Yes the dismount (wet exit) is so easy itâs like falling out, but you have to let yourself fall. Think of taking off a pair of loose pants. Lean forward and place your hands on the combing at the place your pants pockets would be if you were wearing a set of jeans. Now just push the kayak off your body by pushing it up towards the sky and lean forward with your head trying to touch the deck with your forehead. Doing those 2 movements at the same time you could not stay in the kayak if you wanted to.
With new paddlers I do âPlay in the waterâ first. Like kids in a swimming pool. (no kayaks or paddles at all)
Do swimming (with PFD on so they get a feeling for it) roll and cork-screw your body. Stand on your hands and head on the bottom as much as the PFD will allow. Curl up into a fetal position and also spread eagle on your face and on your back. And I have them do a seated L position with their legs sideways but their upper bodies twisted to gget as flat to the water as possible. Spend time getting so used to the water that you find you have no âunnatural positionsâ. No matter how you twist of spin you just come back up with the PFD.
I find with the kids that a swimming and rough-housing session from morning to lunch is great. Then later I put them in the kayaks and teach them to roll out. A bit of âfun timeâ later I have them all doing re-entries. Assessed at first and them self rescues. This is all done in about 3 feet of water. Once they can do that I start them rolling by âdirt-divingâ a few body positions and motions. I have some wax-wood bo staffs from my martial arts days and I put them in the kayaks in about 14" of water and have them use the staffs to brace up off the bottom using a hard push with their thighs and knees and I assist them to get the hip-flick down. As they gain coordination I have to help them less and less to right the kayak (using the deck rigging) and the they use shaft against the bottom gives them a feel for self control over the kayak. . Next I give them paddles and teach them a climbing sweep, so they canât sink the blade as they do those sweeps. That new motion is across the surface not down towards the bottom. Last I have them combine the sweeps with the knee/thigh thrust and hip flick. After about an hour they are rolling in 2 feet of water and not using the staff to brace on the bottom, but just using the blades to sweep and scull, so they can snap the hulls back under them. Thatâs a roll.
Itâs what some call a 1/2 roll, but doing nothing but 1/2 rolls is all I teachâ and I tell them if they want to try, go all the way around. (They do and in a few tries they are doing a full roll.) They just do that themselves.
Mostly I just teach them to control the hull of the kayak using their butts knees and thighs, and the roll comes all by itself.
The dirt-diving is important so they get a feel of how to move with no kayak at first. I teach them to sweep the paddle backwards with a climbing angle on the blade and place their heads on the back deck, and then I teach them to flex forward like a sit-up and try to touch the deck with their fore-heads, sweeping the blade in an arc forward . Doing that body movement (whole upper body, NOT just arms) and touching their heads to the deck as they thrust up with their legs and butts causes the kayak to roll up easily. Done right itâs not a bit hard to do. The kayak rights itself and you just let it pull you up with it.
I love this method because itâs all great fun, and totally safe in only knee deep water. Wet exits are super easy and they can just stand up if they need to.
Once they get a feel for rolling and can exit and re-enter THEN I start teaching them to paddle the kayak.
In this way if they get into deeper water they can do we exits and re-entries and they can roll which means they are totally relaxed and unafraid. In that relaxation their progress from total novices to good paddlers is fast, easy and the progress is wonderful. In learning to edge and lean for turns there is no fear because they can already do rolls 1st, and if that fails they can exit and re-enter. I make the re-entry a game and so far the kids love it and are good at it so they are not a bit afraid to try hard edging and brace turns.
But in my opinion that 1/2 day of play time and roughhousing in water before they ever touch a kayak or a paddle is the real key to success. Just getting used to going under for a few seconds so it has no fear at all is the real foundation for all of this.
No fear means no stress and no mistakes because they are never in danger. That sub-conscious âdangerous feelingsâ are all covered up and forgotten with that few hours of water play, long before they ever sit inside their first kayak.
People do wrong movement mostly because they rush, and rushing is always a result of feeling in danger. No danger= no stress and with no stress they make very few mistakes. Progress from one step to the next with ease and no failures makes for very fast learning.
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I thought snowflakes melted on the water. What a weird thread.