Whenever you get feeling a bit rusty with your rolls it’s often just because you’ve either not been practicing recently (life does do that to us. . .) or maybe you’ve gotten complacent. You & I both know how that goes as well. Thing is, rolling is soooooooo easy once you know how. Well some rolls anyway! LOL!! So it’s really easy to overlook practice time. Especially if you don’t like getting wet. I can’t imagine it, but I’ve met kayakers who don’t really want to get wet!!

Myself I’m a rolling addict. It’s play for me, it’s yoga, it’s my personal connection time. I love rolling. Let me say again, Rolling is NOT paddling, but rolling is a joy unto itself. So I noticed quickly when a couple weeks went by and my hand roll was getting splashy. It was time to break it down. So I started really paying attention to my hand roll. Ahhh, I see. . complacency, thy name is me!! First I was bringing my head up too much and second I’d lost a bit of focus on the twist (or hipsnap if you like). The combination meant that I had to over compensate by really whacking the surface of the water to get up. I’ve added a new "hand roll" clip to the video page (Hand Roll – Sea Kayak) and you can judge how I did at cleaning up the roll. Watch the outside hand. I’m trying to get a calm tap, not a big whack!

To move on to more complex rolls you absolutely have to clean up your twist and, for layback rolls anyway, keep you head on the deck. It only gets harder from here. One thing I’ve been working on recently is just holding one hand on my belly while I stick roll. This is just a bit tougher than a standard norsaq roll where your outside arm acts as a counterweight while you sweep up. Where do you go with this? See Doug Van Doren’s "bowling ball roll" on the clips page. So yesterday I spent a good hour laying tight against my back deck with my left hand gripping the buckle loops of my Reed. Slowly I’d roll over, then reach out with the Norsaq and roll up. I became very aware of how when I first went underwater, my head would fall off the back deck and how my feet would slip a bit from the sides of the hull where I had them braced. So the plan was that I would take on each problem area one at a time. First since I was rolling in a layback position like a lazy otter and not setting up properly, I could feel my body positions much better. I could slide underwater, then lift my head until it bumped the boat, then reach out and roll. Doing it this way you don’t have momentum to assisst. Repeating this process over and over made me much more sensitive to my head position. I could tell I’d been lifting before. Bad monkey me! Just lifting my head a bit from this "dead" rolling posistion and I would fail. I had to "be a log" and keep my head down!! When I felt like I could hold a quarter between my head and my deck I felt I could move on. I sent my brain off to watch my toes for awhile. My toes initiate the roll these days. If I remember to keep them tight into the hull and twist my feet, legs, hips. . my roll is quite powerful. If I’m lazy with my feet, I’m not coming up. Certainly for you Euro guys you can insert "Hipsnap & knee" for "twist & feet". The concepts are the same. What’s amazing is that with just a little focus time I felt like I had improved 100%. After that hour or so I felt much better! So you know what that means?? Time to go hunting for rocks! Well, tiny little rocks. I managed some successful rolls with a rock held against my belly. Not even close in my sweep hand. I’m not ready to do Doug’s patented roll yet, but I’ll get there. . . It’s much easier to use the rock as the counterweight!! Which I did to the reply of "That’s Cheating!!!" from Mary on the beach. Yeah, but it was fun.See the clip "Rock-n-Roll". As a side note that massive tower of rocks some diver finds just below the surface of Devil’s Lake is not an archeological find, just the spot where I’ve been practicing!

But then there’s this guy John Doornick, who takes it to a whole new level! John was kind enough to let me publish a clip of his Bowling Ball roll. This is something pretty special. He’s able to roll with the bowling ball in his sweeping hand. Which takes the "brick" roll a bit further. Really amazing. And he does make it look simple. That’s good. If it LOOKED difficult we’d probably never be inspired to try. See His Clip Here. Thanks John, that is amazing.

Oh wait, then there’s the skate board roll. What’s that you say? Why? How hard is it? What skill is involved?? Well, none. If you can Angel roll you can do it with a skate board. The tough part is getting someone to let you take their skateboard out into deep water. It’s just for fun! Again See Clip Here.

Each day we practice. We work. We improve. Some days we can be proud of ourselves. I hope you have others to share in your little victories. We all need them. Sometimes we have to give ourselves credit. Repeat after me. . .

My name is _________________(insert your name).
I’m _____ years old, and MY KUNG FU IS STRONG!!

Have a good weekend!

I can’t help but feel each day the pressure of a setting sun. Sure, it’s not like I’m a geezer but I’m a bit sensitive to endings. Sometimes they take you by surprise. You don’t have all the time in the world to realize you don’t have all the time in the world. That sensitivity to the temporary nature of life drives me. A doctor once said I must have some disorder going on. Yeah, It’s that disorder where you realize you don’t live forever and find that important! Obviously this quack never read Jung. Only a text book would not recognize “quiet desperation” as a healthy or at least normal state of the psyche.

I wish I had time to learn all there is to know. But that’s downright silly. We only have time to specialize in a few things before we rejoin the molecular structure of the dirt. Or, if you like, push up daisies. Among other things of course, I’ve taken up sea kayaking. One thing I’ve found in Kayaking is a personal daily metaphor. I need that. All I need do is look at my boat and it reminds me that in kayaking as in life, to keep moving. Keep learning. Be flexible and open to change, face fear and on and on. If I’m board with it, it means I’m giving in to mediocrity. I’m becoming a sloth. I need to try something new. Find new challenges. I don’t bail out and put the boat away. I find new ways to play with it. Ansell Adams could shoot forever within the confines of Yosemite and continue to grow. Limits are not as we like to think, . . limitations. Limits are just parameters that define the challenge.

In the distance I see a coming battle. The smoke and mist of this war are just over the next big wave. It’s another battle with fear. My personal fear. I know this enemy well, we’ve fought many times before. Fear at worst can be crippling, at best distracting. Somehow I’ve always managed to not be paralyzed by it. Yet, it sits on my shoulder and screams in my ear. It’s a distraction. In recent years I feel like I’ve been winning this battle most of the time. Yet, I think sometimes that this trend toward wins is just an inventory of easy victories and not real challenges. I know this much, at times I’ve been holding back. Every so often fear makes my teeth hurt and I choose to retreat, at least for a moment. Yet, I also know I go back. I’ve been taking on fear in little slices. A slow climb is better than going back down I’d think. I’m not running scared, but I’m not leaping either. At least I don’t feel that way. In my kayaking experience I know there are bigger and scarier days out there that are still reasonable and safe for thoes with experience. I need to challenge them and challenge myself to take them on.

Being here in the Midwest gives you some leeway to hide within our more friendly environment. You can claim “lack of access”. But that’s not really true. Not everyday is a big sea day for sure, but not everyday is cake. A few days here and there on the lakes I’ve dived into waters bigger and louder than the voices in my head. I’ve not been panicked, but I’ve felt fear as a companion. I’ve wondered, “Is that fear strong enough to stop me from acting?” So far, not when it mattered. So far every time I’ve faced “BIG”, (my ever-changing perception of “big” anyway) I’ve been too busy to worry about it. Too occupied to be scared. Necessity has always blocked my fear. So far. . . Yet, I know if I have to just go to play in the “big stuff” without cause, but just to “play”, that’s when I may be tempted not push it. It feels something like vertigo. Odd how that works. If you are involved in a rescue or whatever you have almost no fear, but in lesser conditions when paddling just for the sake of fun, fear can then re-appear. It can have power. Strange.

Sure, it may not be easy not to notice outwardly; My little battle with the abyss. I do like to dive in when the weather turns rough. This is true. Friends know I’m a foul weather junkie! Some find me a bit crazy. I want the battle. I want the high. I want to win. The battle is not with the environment, it is against fear. . The water will kill me without mercy. I know that. I fear it. Yet I climb into my warhorse and ride out. I jump before fear can make it’s case. Once in the tempest, survival over comes fear. I have to concentrate. Yet, did I face it or bypass it? I wonder. I feel when the smoke clears that fear has been left bloodied on ground. I feel something not unlike ecstasy. Big waves are a rush, but victory over fear is personal. Of real value. Often how big is “BIG” is defined much more by fear, than by the state of the sea. And in the end victory over fear is something much bigger than just “kayaking”. My kayak interestingly, is often the vessel in which I do battle with myself.

I used to be afraid of water, then deep water, then little waves, then bigger waves, then wind, then high wind and big waves. . . On we go. I’ve been thinking about the future. Personal goals in the sport. I think I know what I have to do. I can see a path. But between you and I, sometimes I’m a little afraid.

Spent the day at Circus World Museum here in Baraboo. Baraboo was the winter quarters for the Ringling Bros. Circus from 1884 until 1918 and up until a few years ago the museum was a popular attraction. But no more. This was one of those mercy trips for when you have a young child who sees something almost every day and thinks it must be wonderful. You can’t explain to a child that they are poorly managed, out of money and going down in flames. So you drop $40 and go. But after a couple hours of un-staffed rides and terrible shows he was ready to move on. I of course took the opportunity to enjoy some historic artwork and practice my balance skills! Well, off to Milwaukee early in the morning for a day on Lake Michigan. If we’re lucky we may get some waves! And besides at day with Silbs & JB is just like going to the circus!