whitewater to touring roll

"leverage to snap"
you don’t need leverage from the paddle to hip snap. A lot of people try to feel some kind of resistance before they hip snap. The hip snap doesn’t involve the paddle, or the arms (not the upper body either) at all.



Try to get your torso as close to the surface of the water and as far to the side as possible. What you are to achieve with a standard type roll is to have your torso and upper body extended away from the kayak and floating in the water, near the surface. Then, relaxing your upper body and using only your lower body, you want to rotate the kayak along is long axis, from deck down to deck up.



If you are trying to leverage with your paddle or arms, you are engaging the upper body and this will greatly hinder your rolling.

Just different secondary
Most all WW boats have quite high primary. They also have secondary that tends to go away more dramatically fast than many touring boats is all, but it’s still there. Depending ont he shape they can come up less smoothly.

I think, not sure, that the Hoss is a creeker. If I am right, many WW boats would have less volume so feel different.

So what did your instructor say?
Any feedback on your rolls from someone who was actually watching you?



I learned to roll in a Current Designs Squall. Later, I took a WW lesson. The first session was in a pool, and I got to roll an old Jackson boat. It wasn’t much different in ease/difficulty from the Squall, but it felt different because the hull shape was very different from the Squall’s. When capsizing, I almost hung up without going all the way over, and then when coming up there was a distinct “edge” feeling at one point. But it was the same roll.



The important thing was that the instructor suggested I extend my upper body out a little more to get a better sweep. I did so, and the roll felt more powerful, secure. Feedback from a good observer can help a LOT.

My personal experience
When I learned to roll, white water boats had really nice aggressive thigh braces and sea kayaks had crummy ones (generally). Rolling a WW boat was easy for me because my thighs were so nicely locked in whereas in my Necky boat they had these little flat wings sticking out and my thighs always slipped off trying to twist the boat up. Sea kayaks have improved a lot with their thigh bracing but not all. I think you will find that those details will make a big difference more than just a sea kayak vs. a WW one. Once I padded and shaped my bracing in my Necky, I was able to roll it so much more easily.



Good luck. Remember skills like rolling take a while to perfect and it’s an evolving skill that you work on regularly. If you have trouble, try different instructors since there are many ways to roll and one may just agree with you and your boat better than another.