Feels like the first time
And it feels like the very first time
And it feels like the first time
It feels like the very first time – foreigner

So, here’s the thing. When you finally do get that first roll, you probably won’t believe it anyway. So it’s hardly worth all the work then, eh? I agree. So stop working at it.

Funny, but I’ve had this experience multiple times when I teach a standard Greenland style roll. The student does not believe they did it! There they sit. Looking at you. In total raging denial. Why? Well, they didn’t feel like they did anything. And that’s exactly how it should be.

The standard Greenland roll or “Pawlata” is certainly not a difficult roll to learn. (much easier with an instructor than on your own) To Euro paddlers you’d think of this as sort of an extended paddle roll. Only the big long stick is much more forgiving. A person can make a pile of sloppy mistakes and still come up with the traditional paddle. And they often do. Yet success with Pawlata (named according to Derek Hutchinson, after Edi Pawlata who supposedly did the first “Eskimo” roll in Europe in 1927) requires you to calm down and stop “muscling” the roll.

Guys are great at killing this basic roll when they first try it. Especially if they’ve been fighting through a couple years of “C2C suicide”. You know the drill; Bad sweep, WANK! Bad sweep, WANK! Head down! Good Leg, Bad Leg, DIVE! DIVE! DIVE! . . More often than not you will spend most of your time with these guys teaching them to relax and stop trying to kill things! Then of course if you can get them to actually calm down a bit, the roll comes almost instantly.

The problem is of course, they don’t believe you! You have to argue with them that they actually did do it themselves. Convince them you weren’t pulling a “David Blaine” on them. Recently I had to get back about 10 miles and behind 3 inches of lead, just so the student could be absolutely sure I did not help! Well, 4 inches. . . Yep, when you do it right, you don’t FEEL like you did anything. It’s just how it works. You go over, you’re arms and body do something, then there you are sitting upright. You rolled. Yet, you can’t believe you did it, because you didn’t feel all that muscle twisting stress you expect a roll to be all about. Of course It usually takes a few more successful rolls to convince someone they are actually doing it on their own.

I’ve often been asked by students after that first won traditional roll, why they were learning the other rolls, and why those rolls are so hard. Well, they’re not any harder. Not really. A bit harder to learn maybe. And each type of roll tends to fit certain people better than others, and what is right for you depends on your body, how you learn, your boat’s design, your style of paddling, etc., You’d not be likely to use a Pawlata in whitewater for instance. . . Thing is, many shops and schools just have not caught up to the variety of options now out there. Let alone that have coaches proficient in a variety of styles. So, they then tend to teach the roll they know. Regionally at least, there has been a long running dogma that the C2C is easiest to learn because of it’s rigid “Step by Step” pattern. Personally I think that reasoning is overrated. In fact I often think that this kind of thinking also limits the coach. They just get into their groove and overlook the student’s personal requirements. But that’s just my opinion. (I should mention too that the C2C was my first roll and my “combat roll”.) One thing is sure, we all know that any roll, Euro or Traditional, is all about form and not about muscle, but I do think the traditional paddle makes that point a little quicker.

In my experience, I’ve found when teaching the standard Greenland roll as a first roll, most often the issue is not getting a “first” roll, but refining it into something useful and repeatable. Cleaning up the sweep, correcting hand positions, twisting the lower body, Keeping head low, and torso over the boat, etc. But that first actual roll comes pretty easily for most students in about a half hour. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less.

One thing is sure, when I have students who tell me they have struggled a couple years with a roll and I can see their feeling really down on themselves, I feel any roll is a good bit of encouragement. I’ll look at where they are with what they were learning, and if it looks to me like they’ve built up a bunch of bad habits, I’m happy to toss that big scoop aside. I’ll be happy to break the routine and let them get their “first roll” with the GP. From there we can keep refining, switch back to a Euro if that’s the goal, or move on to other traditional rolls. It’s all up to the student.

Well, I’m still feeling under the weather and my thoughts are a bit thick. I’m thinking of starting a Wellie Wanging league. I’m also thinking I’d better take a few more Tylenol. I’m also thinking I need to run to the store. I think I need to buy some Wellies. Nice ones. Fashionable, aerodynamic Wellies, with well balanced, heafty heels.

Related Posts:

1. Rolling A Kayak – Yoda Would Be Ticked!
2. Hand Rolling Demystified. .
3. rolling in the black lagoon
4. Rolling with Greg Stamer & Freya Hoffmeister
5. Shaft Roll