You don’t have to worry ’cause you have no money,
People on the river are happy to give.
Rolling, rolling, rolling on the river. . . CCRA post in 3 parts. . Mary’s Progress, Body Bath (what??), Keel Strip

Part I – Mary’s Progress
So the really big news of the past few days is Mary’s advancement in her rolling efforts which she punctuated yesterday with her first successful re-entry and roll. You can imagine she’s feeling pretty good about now. To get to this point she had to spend hours of “butt in boat” time tightening up her technique. Then as is often the case, her roll went from shaky to smooth in the space of just one roll. Many of us can remember how when we learned our first roll, our first successes were often a bit scrambled. Then suddenly, seemingly in a flash, everything came together. It’s like out of nowhere your brain grasps what you’ve been telling it for months. From that first epiphany roll and and after half a dozen more she was in the water working on the re-entry which came after about 5 attempts.

If you can roll, the re-enter & roll recovery is pretty simple AFTER you figure out how to get your butt in the boat. Basically you slip legs into the cockpit, then grabbing the combing with one hand on each side, you pull yourself upside down under the water. From there you basically slip the boat on like a pair of pants and then lock your butt, knees, and feet to hold yourself in. Once in the cockpit you set up and roll as usual. (If you are wondering where your paddle goes, you hold onto the paddle and the combing with one hand)

Now back to the extended paddle roll for a moment. In Mary’s case she really struggled with using the Euro paddle. The feathered blade angle was causing no end of confusion. Once we started working with the Greenland paddle, things started coming together and advancement was more easily attained. In addition we have been able to spend a lot of time on technique as she moved forward. I know others don’t always have the benefit of someone around to work with them on a daily basis or have a lake so near by. Without some regular coaching I wonder that students who have quick sucess with the extended paddle roll as their first roll can’t begin to ingrain some bad techniques. Especially when it comes to blade angles, body and recovery positions.

The most common mistake I’ve seen are students stopping mid-way though the sweep and trying to pull themselves out of the the water with the paddle. Thing is, this often works because you have so much leverage with the extended blade. And that’s where learning bad habits come in. Taking this sort of success home and not following it up with some more coaching could lead to some problems. Besides a risk of shoulder injury, this “pull up” method is not very stable. Remember that when doing a high brace you have turn the blade to the vertical in order to slice it out. Mastering this blade recovery while wanking on an extended paddle is not going to be very easy. (insert shoulder injury warning here as well) It’s also in-efficient as you use a lot of energy trying to pull up on the paddle. The student needs to remember the extended paddle roll is at it’s core a sweep roll. If you complete the roll by continuing your sweep and laying back on your deck you will find that little muscle is needed at all. The concern here is that the student does not become over confident and get in the habit of pulling themselves up with the extended paddle.

If you’re working on an extended paddle roll and it still feels a bit rough, my only tip (without being in the water) would be to think about twisting your body as soon as you begin your sweep don’t stop twisting until you’re laying on the back deck facing the sky. I think of the “twist” as one long continuous movement not a momentary “hip-snap” common to other rolls. It’s like a ballet move. Your sweep is in a long wide ark front (of your boat) to back as your body twists off the leverage of the moving blade which lifts you out of the water and brings your boat underneath your body. Make sense? No?? Ok, time for the video. . . .Check out Yuko’s Roll.

Part II Body Bath

Time for a tip. If you’re tired of being a stinky sea kayaker but you still want to camp for days without taking a bath you need “NO-Rinse” body bath. No, I’ve never seen it in a store but Mary works in a pharmacy and they sell it for folks with physical limitations. You basically dilute it with a little water and rub it in. No rinsing required. Surprisingly it does a great job of washing your hair in the wilderness with very little water. Their Website Is Here. So there’s another totally free advertisement, but it’s worth it. This is actually a decent product.Part III Keel Strip

I got my boat back!!! The keel strip looks quite nice. I like the fact that he tapered the nose and tail of the strip to go around the toggle holes. And that he allowed it to layover the skeg box to reinforced the edges there that often tend to wear out first. Yes, it did cost a bit, but if you can’t do it yourself you have to pay for it. Thanks Fox Hill Auto Body for taking on kayak repairs for me.

Related Posts:

1. Just Grab It
2. Shaft Roll
3. UP
4. really, really, good day
5. forward recoveries