July 31, 2003

Rolling down the Potomac

One of my great failings in the role of instructor has been my inability to teach rolling. I've bought nearly every thing I can on teaching rolling yet I never feel I'm 'good enough' when I'm with a student. I can diagnose what is wrong easily enough, but I seem to fail on conveying how to fix it to the person I am teaching.

I recently bought Vol 6 of Nigel Foster's Sea Kayaking Series "Rolling and Bracing". I've actually bought the entire series, but the most recent one I've received is Vol 6. Anyhow, Nigel seems to have a great progressive process which I wanted to give a try.

Katie's roll in the pool has been pure mechanical and required pre-placement of her paddle. It was 50/50 at best, and I often had to help her back up. Tonight we would try to roll 'in the wild' according to the way I watched Nigel teach it on video.

We started out in 4 inches of water. Getting her to lay properly with her back flat to the water looking up. Her paddle at right angles to the kayak, and having her high brace up with her paddle.

Next, in waist deep water I held her paddle blade in my hand while she high braced up. After about 3 tries I told her to try and lift the blade out of my hand before she rolled up. When I felt the blade lift from my hand I let go, and she rolled up!

Incrementally making things a little more challenging I had her roll over on her own, my hands only on the deck lines in case she needed me to roll up. As she went over she lost her grip on the paddle with one hand so I rolled her back up. Katie said I did it too soon - "I still could have done it on my own". The next try she went down and her hands pulled the paddle parallel to the kayak. I was saying out loud to Joan that Katie would blow this one when she suddenly did a sweep and rolled up!

I was shocked.

Since the silt I was standing in was pretty nasty, I got back in my sea kayak and we moved off shore to nearly the middle of the river. Katie made me stay close and keep my bow at right angles to her in case she needed an Eskimo rescue. She probably rolled in deep water another 6 or 8 times. She not once had to bail out of her kayak or need an Eskimo rescue. There was one attempt where she started to sweep, realized her paddle angle was wrong, and reset her paddle and rolled up. I never taught her that!

For me I think it was a productive evening. Katie's roll/high brace is awesome. We'll need to work on going down on one side and back up on the other, but that will come. And of course there is the off side. I'm hoping I can use this method to teach others how to roll. Time will tell.

As I think about next weekend being her 13th birthday, I wonder how long it will be before Katie has her 3 star?

Woody

See related link on rolling here.