Like many people I kayaked for years without knowing how to roll. It just seemed like something only for whitewater junkies and Greenland expedition kayakers. Not for the average Joe. For me, the average Joe, rolling wasn’t necessary. I was just out doodling around local flatwater, and the occasional kayaking in the San Juans just didn’t justify it.
That was until I started taking whitewater lessons with Northwest River Guides of Portland, OR. I quickly realized that if you’re going to make any progress learning whitewater you must have a kayak roll. Also, if you do have a sea kayak or whitewater boat, and you flip, it’s much safer to roll than to wet exit and re-board your kayak. After a number of lessons and attempts I finally rolled my whitewater boat. I also learned some recreational and sea kayaks are easier to roll than others, depending on factors like hull design, cockpit size and how the boat is outfitted.
No matter what kind of boat you want to roll, there are some basic things to remember. Don’t get frustrated. For most people rolling takes time. Even if you successfully roll your boat for a time, you may pick up bad habits and “lose your roll.” It is perfectly normal. Completely totally annoying but normal. Rolling is not a natural skill. It is completely counter-intuitive. Your body’s natural instinct when under water is to go for air, which will kill your kayak roll. In one part of the roll, you need to fight that instinct to “go for a gasp of air right away!” And you’ll need to do all of steps in the rolling process to succeed. You can’t skip anything. You can do some parts less skillfully than others and still roll up. But you must do all of them. There are different types of rolls, but all of them have these basics. Here are the pieces of the puzzle:
- The set up
- Sweeping the paddle blade out
- The hip snap
- Keeping the head down
- Finish position
My first lesson rolling was in a Dagger GT whitewater kayak. It fit me just fine. It’s pretty important to adjust your foot rest/foot pegs, hip pads and thigh braces for a snug fit. You’ll want to be able to exit the boat if you can’t roll. But you need to be snug enough that you won’t fall out just by flipping over! If you’ve got a touring boat, remember you need to have as many points of contact with the boat as possible. This means foot pegs, thigh braces and hip pads are all snug. You also need to be comfortable upside down. There will be times when you’re upside down, and you might have to take time, be patient, to set up to get your roll. I know – be patient under water upside down?!! Yup. We’ll find out later in this article how importance patience can be.
My experience learning the roll started with learning to wet exit. If nothing else, you can always wet exit. The first thing to keep in mind is your head. Let’s say you are in a river with rocks around. You don’t want your head – or your face – smashed by those rocks. This means if you’re upside down – you must keep your body and face close to the boat. To wet exit, you pull the handle on the front of your spray skirt to pull it off the cockpit, and then push back on the outside of the cockpit. You’ll be free of the boat and able to get to the surface. Don’t forget to keep hold of your paddle.
The next step is the T-Rescue. This is when you flip over and use the bow of a fellow kayaker to help you flip your boat up. To do a T-Rescue right, you need to understand how to hip snap. As with the wet exit, once upside down, you need to keep your body close to the hull of your boat. This is in case you’re in a river and rocks might pose a danger, and because it’s easier to right the boat if your body is close to the hull. Bang the sides of your boat to alert fellow boaters you need help, and make fists with your hands and rub them alongside of your boat to feel the rescuer’s bow. I recommend making fists to protect your hands should the rescuer’s bow bang your boat. Somehow you’ll also need to hold your paddle. Once you find the other boat’s bow, gently put your hands on the bow. Yes this is while you are upside down. Then rotate your hips very quickly in the direction of your hands, which are on the other boat’s bow. All while keeping your head/mouth as near your shoulder as possible. If you do all of these things you’ll have righted your kayak before you know it. Practice hip snaps off a kayakers bow in calm water. You can also practice off the side of a pool or dock. It will become second nature. Practice on both sides of your boat because you won’t know which side the rescue will come from. Keeping your head down becomes important from the T-Rescue and into the Eskimo roll. This means as your boat rolls upward, righting itself, you have to keep your head as close to the surface of the water the whole time, until your boat is completely righted. You can practice keeping your head down during the T-Rescue by blowing bubbles on the water. If you keep blowing bubbles you’ll automatically keep your head down.
Why is keeping your head down so important? Well, your head is heavy. If it were up in the air as you try to right your boat, it would be like a weight preventing you from rolling up. Why is keeping the head down hard? That’s because we, as mammals, don’t have gills like fish. We need to breathe the air. We instinctively want to get our head as far above the water as possible to get air. But if we do that while rolling a kayak, what’s the result? Failure. Failure, failure, failure. Our kayak, almost rolled up, falls back down. You’ve got to fight the instinct to go for air, and keep that head down during your hip snap.
Now it’s time to get that kayak roll. In my case, I was really unsure. But I was determined to learn it. Looking at someone rolling a kayak, it looks like they are using their paddle to get it to roll up. But that is simply not the case. The reality is that the hips and thighs are doing more of the work.
The first step is the setup position. The set up is the foundation for a roll that works. Let’s start with a roll to the right. This means when you’re upside down, you’re going to be sweeping your kayak paddle blade out to the right. Ready, set, here we go. When upside down, for the setup position, you’ll be curling up towards the cockpit on the left side of the boat. You want your body to be upward and to the side of your cockpit as much as you can. Not forward, but to the side. Stretch your arms out and upward, over the left side of the kayak so that your paddle blade is above the water. Your right side blade should be parallel to the surface of the water. Your head should be as close to the side of the boat as possible. Finding this setup position is essential. This is where patience and calm is paramount. In the real world, you won’t know how you wound up flipped over, and believe me, you won’t flip over in the setup position. But instead of panicking, you’ll need to be patient and find the setup position before you do any of the other parts of the Eskimo roll. Memorize the exact spot where your chest, head and paddle need to be.
Now, the sweep. The sweep means that beginning from the setup position, sweep your right paddle blade out until it’s about 90 degrees from the side of the boat. You are NOT using the blade to push the boat up. You want that blade to be as close to the surface as possible while sweeping.
Now comes the tricky part. This involves performing your hip snap while sweeping, and keeping your head down all at once. This is where it all comes together. Starting with the setup position, sweep the blade over the surface of the water while at the same time perform a hip snap and keeping your head down. If you do all of these parts correctly, voila – you should have rolled the kayak! But NOT SO FAST. Not for most of us! Not for me, anyway. There are too many things that all have to be done right for this to work. For most of us, some part of this sequence wasn’t done right, and we fail – a lot – before we get the roll going consistently.
Some tricks I picked up from others help the rolling a lot. One is keep your hands loose on the paddle shaft. Don’t use a white-knuckle grip. This usually translates into making the paddle blade dive, and that hurts the roll. Another is to keep your head down, watch the paddle blade as it sweeps over your head underwater. This simple trick is enough to get many people rolling, because bringing the head up is a major temptation – and obstacle – to rolling a kayak.
Finally, the finish position. The very last part of the roll, the finish position is where you should find yourself once done. You should be looking down your paddle at the right blade, and your left hand is on the other end of the paddle near your face, knuckle inward.
Where to go from here? Even if your roll isn’t perfect, you can get that last 15% and get up by bracing or even taking a forward stroke. You also can’t celebrate too much because if you’re in a river, you’ve got to get moving right away. So it’s important that once you roll up, take a good look around and take action.
Remember, there isn’t something wrong with you if you take a while to get your roll. There isn’t something to be ashamed of if you ‘get’ your roll and then ‘fall off the wagon’ for a while. I was rolling OK in August 2007 and had to take a break from kayaking until December. On my first pool practice I nailed 12 rolls. I couldn’t believe it, and I felt like a champ. But oh no. The next week I was just awful! But then with consistent practice I was back. And then sometime in June it happened again. Each time something goes wrong, I have to go back and see if I’m doing each part of the process right. Usually it’s one thing off. I also found if I concentrate too much on one part, I forget some other part. Sometimes watching the rolling videos makes me worse! I found they do just that – make me focus on one part, e.g. the finish position, and then I slack on another part like the hip snap.
Also remember rolling in the pool, or rolling in warm river water, is not the same as rolling in a dry suit and wearing a helmet! This equipment will slow down your roll. You still perform the same steps, it just happens a bit slower. Rolling in current is another thing altogether. You’ve just got to get out there and practice.
Don’t ever forget about safety. If you’re practicing in a river you’ve got to have other people near to help!
NRG offers rolling lessons in a pool-safe environment weeknights from 8:00-9:30 at USA Athletics. Call 503-772-1122.
