RE: About Rolling

Posted by Tony Calvert on May 24, 2004

I was in the same boat as Kurt, hiring kayaks for a 3 day trip with absolutely no idea of the dangers involved. I knew that if my head was pointing towards the seabed that I had to pull the red tag on the front of my spray skirt and get out of the boat but i had never done it, so I was not totally sure that I was capable of doing it.

With the addition of 2 CH16's to my garage I decided that I should probably learn a thing or two so three weeks ago I joined the local whitewater kayak club who have pool sessions every Wednesday night.

First thing they showed me was how to get out of the kayak if your head is pointing down instead of up.(I can do it! which is a good thing). Next was brace strokes(very handy).

On the third week we got into the rolling, I must admit when you are upside down it takes a little working out which way things should go but at the end of the session I was rolling successfully about 80% of the time.

All the training is done in whitewater boats but I'm sure once I get it to a 100% success rate I should be able to transfer the skills to the CH 16's.

All this training is only a start but it makes me realise how much more I need to know. It's good fun learning all these things and I think I may have to have a go on some river rapids in the near future.

In Response to: To LeeG, About Rolling by Kurt Maurer on May 24, 2004

Replies:

No Replies.