For the roll, I have been arching my back when I enter the water, starting the sweep of the body and paddle together, and then beginning that big core-muscle crunch ‘recovery move’ when my torso is about 90deg to the boat. Like Derrick advised I’m not thinking about the paddle, at least until the very end. To get the timing of everything right, it was very helpful to watch Doug van Doren on TITS II. You can see him arch, start a big sweep, and then quickly suck the boat under him about 1/2 way through, then finish the paddle sweep. That helped me a lot.

I’ll pay attention to my off-side, to see what I can improve, and check my arch. (Frankly, I was suprised to get it on my off-side at all!)

BTW, I have been doing everything with a euro (Werner) paddle in a standard paddling position, which is my immediate goal right now for any roll that I learn. I will eventually get ahold of a traditional stick and see what happens…

Thanks, again.

TD

Don’t know if you’ll be back this way to even see this, but here goes nothing:

1. The chest scull is the foundation for forward finishing rolls, as the side scull/balance brace is the foundation for aft finishing rolls.

2. To chest scull, choke up on your paddle some, ie, both hands on the blade, not one hand out on the shoulder or loom. The lower (inboard) hand goes deep, the top (outboard) hand, along with the torso provides the sculling side-side motion to the paddle. Originate this motion to some extent from your torso. You’re not wildly swinging the torso side to side, but make sure the motion starts from the waist joint, not relying on you arms. Arch your back, chin up to breathe, otherwise, rest in the water, just at the surface. Your torso is turned to enter the water in the front quadrant, anywhere from about 45° to 90° to the kayak.

3. To begin recovery from the chest scull, begin rotating the kayak back under you by activating your knee/thigh on the side you’re sculling on. Once you’ve started moving the kayak, with the outboard paddle blade high, even poking up out of the water, follow through in one smooth motion, converting your back arch to an abdominal crunch, keeping low, and pull the paddle down and in across your lap in the “hoeing weeds” motion, as it’s been so succinctly described by the Patron Saint of Greenland Kayaking to New Zealand, Shawn Baker. When you get the timing of activating these muscle groups down, you should find yourself back over your kayak, upright, leaning forward low over the coaming, paddle across your lap in a palms-down low brace position.

4. Practice the chest scull. That IS the reverse sweep. The entire sweep component can provide lift, but it is unnecessary. You can merely move the body and paddle into position for the chest scull recovery without generating any lift, and still come up and look good doing it. Once you have this forward recovery down, you are set to finesse the rest, and butt in boat time will lead to awareness of body positioning and refinement.

5. The reverse sweep *can* break paddles. Resist this “powering” the roll by concentrating on making your body do most of the work of rolling the kayak under you. Like laybacks, this is a combination of working with your flotation in the water, and timing. As Turner Wilson told me: “Move the kayak first. Commit your head to the deep on the recovery.” Stay low over the kayak. Work out the timing. Start recovery when you are already floating high at the surface. Keep your hands on the blade, don’t reach the outboard arm out to it’s extent, which is trying to use the paddle as a lever. It’s only an assist. It might as well be a norsaq or just your hand. Must not rely on it.

6. When I was working on this roll with Turner’s coaching, I realized there is, for me, a big disconnect between my dominant side and my weaker left side. I can do this roll fairly well on my right, (capsizing backwards to the left) but I was not nearly as smooth on my left (capsizing backwards to the right). I was starting the recovery too soon, when my body and blade were in the rear quadrant. Turner asked me to slow down, to sweep further before recovering. That helped some. Then he asked me to raise my butt off the seat and pre-arch my back on capsize. That gave me a “head start” of sorts on the sweep, and suddenly the roll was significantly smoother on my off-side. All at once, just like that. Just by pre-arching and not worrying so much about getting into an elaborate setup posture. From there I was able to smooth it out some more.

I’m not sure if that is clear as mud or not, but maybe it helps!

About the chest scull. I was not as successful with this – It actually feels more difficult than the reverse sweep roll. And, it feels like the most pressure you could put on your paddle. You had me worried I was going to snap my new paddle!

P.S. I got all cocky and decided now was the time to try rolling no-hands. Right – that was humbling. The best I could do was get high enough to take a breath…

Hi, I just did a quick browse online and found this clip at Youtube. Good luck!