Chillsville
Published May 8, 2011 | 
Got no deeds to do / No promises to keep.
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you / All is groovy.
- Simon & Garfunkel
There are 2 main ways to approach kayak rolling, the high power, hip flick way, or the relaxed, chilled out way. I prefer to chill out. Both ways work, but the chilled out way works even when you’re just zapped. When it comes to learning to roll, we almost always tend to go for the power. It’s partially animal nature, and partly an expression of the anxiety lingering around because of the fear that you might blow it. Learning to chill out is practically its own step in your rolling progression; “Ok, you’re coming up now. Next we’ll move on to the “chill stage”…
You’ll know if you’re not chillin’ when you first come up. If you’re tense, your kayak will wobble. A still body, especially your legs, will cause your kayak to wobble for a moment as soon as you are upright again. The wobble says you’re tense, but what’s more, it could send you right back over in anything but the flattest conditions.
Now, the best way to overcome that rolling tension is simply to do it a lot. I mean… A LOT! The more you become accustom to rolling, the more relaxed you’ll become. I know guys who’ve been rolling for years that still roll like they’re not all that certain they’ll come up. They simply don’t practice enough.
How you practice can help too. My bit of advice is to avoid “practicing” per se. Methods, scripts or routines simply ramp up the serious perceptions that can get you all stiff in the first place. The more you make your practice sessions like a job, the less success you’re likely to have. That may sound a bit counter intuitive but from my experience it’s the only way. Just go relax, do what you know and try some stuff you don’t. When you start feeling frustrated.. move on. Play. Come back to the challenges after you’ve chilled out.
My favorite chill out routine is simply to grab my Norsaq and flip my kayak. (Um, a paddle is fine!) I’ll hang upside down for a while and relax. Then when it’s getting time to breath again, I’ll ease my rolling stick out a bit and slowly roll up on the back deck. I get my air back, then slip slowly back into the water and repeat the process. I tune out the noise of the world around me and simply focus on being as slow and quiet as possible both sliding in and out of the water. I’m training myself not to be “splashy”, but silent in recovery. A Ninja! Part of this is working on snaking my body on to the deck: lower spine, middle, shoulders, then head. Also sliding my head onto the deck and not setting it there. We have a tendency to lift our head/torso just a bit as we roll the boat under us, then we fully lay down on the deck. The subtlety between sliding on the deck and lifting on to the deck can be very hard to sense unless you smooth out the world around you and focus you mind. I can tell you, that after 10-15 minutes of this little “chill out” routine.. my rolls are always better. In fact, this is when I usually make my learning leaps as well.
For what it’s worth….
5 Responses to Chillsville
Very nice article.
Should it be mentioned that one needs a kayak that allows sliding your back/head on the rear deck? Aren’t most commercial kayaks usually limiting since they have a rather high rear deck?
I can only have half a chance of doing what you say with only one of my kayaks.
You’re right. I can do a fair job of sliding onto my Rockpool. My Romany is a ok. I can’t at all in a P&H Cetus because the back deck is way to high even when I try the “tricks” I do know. So as you say each boat it different. Timing can help. When the boat is still at an angle it’s easier to slide onto the deck. So if you adjust your timing slightly in some boats you can still slide on a higher back deck Also your body build and flexibility can play a part. I’ve got a short torso so higher back decks effect me a little quicker than some taller guys I know. Still the general practice and focus of staying low and sliding, rather than lifting will help everyone roll with much less energy. Good that you brought that up!
It’s funny even some of the more esoteric greenland rolls require quite a bit of explosive leg-drive. Forward recovery hand rolls for instance. And one of the things that has really been working for me with students in the pool is encouraging that explosive leg drive. If I had a choice between explosive leg drive and chillsville while surfing, I would probably take explosive, what do you think?
Would you say chillsville should also apply to state of mind for rolling, more so than body mechanics and effort?
well, here I’m talking about specifically lay back rolls of course but I still think the general concept stands. “Drive” is important in certain situations (and specific rolls) as you mention. However I’d suggest that learning insanely slow rolls,just as recovering only after all rolling momentum is dead requires very good mechanics. Killing the power allows very little room for error. Momentum and speed can cover up weak technique in my experience. In fact, that’s why we use power in surf and white water.. You need the power to overcome environmental “weaknesses”, lack of lift, wave action and so forth. From a purely mechanics point of view I’d always vote for dead slow, calm practice 90% of the time.
Additionally I think there is a sensual connection between your body and your boat that you can only tune into with some very slow “on the deck” “off the deck” practice. You become better attuned not only to your torso and head, but also the connections of your hip, knee, ankle, foot.. and so forth. The slow action allows you to feel each connection as they come into play and allows you to make adjustments. Again, you can always speed things up later.
Again though, all I can do is talk about my own experiences.
Thanks for writing this Derrick. I could not agree more. I transitioned from power to pleasure last year, slowing everything down, even norsaq and hand rolls can been done slowly and with little-to-no “grunt”. The same really is true on forward finishing rolls, I place tension on different muscles but a slow storm roll can still be completed nicely when one learns to relax and have faith in the technique. My most “aggressive” roll is a forward forward fist roll, and even then – yes the arm does a swift plunge but that’s the only part of me that move fast.