This rolling malarky

[The Mad Hatters Assistant]

Sad to say this but in the sunny SW of England I have yet to paddle with another C boater, they are rumoured to exist, still, I guess this is why I'll keep asking you lot on the big continent daft questions.

I've refine the front Deck On-side Roll on the flat water, dam quick too, now should I be able to roll facing up-stream in moving water with the all powerful C1 Roll?

As a Kayaker (K1) I'd generally roll downstream, and as life with 1 Blade adds complications well do I need to start learning to swap the Blade over to roll on my Off-side? Or will I find an On-side roll will get me up all the time? (Let's not get too excited just yet about Holes and the like, as a novice me thinks I'll give they a miss, unless the Hole has it's own ideals).

Oh one other question these Digital Cameras are great for recording a 15s .mov clip. If I were to try and attach one on here are we liable to cause complications? (A 5s clip is around 1.9Mb).

Thanks to you all for your feedback to-date.

[KNeal]

Regardless of river currents, the direction I flip, and where my paddle is located when I flip, there is only one roll I ever use--it is my onside roll. All the exotic methods I mentioned previously in the other post all serve to get me set up on my onside--so, how does a c-boater roll up when the blade is facing upstream? It's not as difficult as you think, just simply use very good technique. I'll try to describe the way I do it.

When rolling, the paddle is somewhat pointing up with the blade as close as you can get it to, or out of, the water. The shaft hand is located around the chest and the forehead may be resting on the control hand (t-grip hand). This is a typical roll setup that is taught far and wide and works good for the most part. What to do when the current is coming at you and shoves the blade downward? You can do what I'll refer to as the "whap roll". I will drop my control hand down deeper in the water so it is away from my forehead and get the blade as much above the surface as I can, while my shaft hand stays somewhere near my chest and my torso is arched toward the surface as much as I can arch. When I have gotten my blade as far upward as I can aim it, I'll "whap" the blade down toward the surface by simultaneously snapping my body in a semi-tuck and snapping the t-grip back toward my torso and using all that kinetic energy to assist the hip snap that will get the boat back underneath me (versus me underneath the boat ).

When written, it may sound complicated, but remember that all you are doing is exaggerating torso arch and aiming the paddle upward so as to get the blade OUT OF the water. I understand the concept of the off-side roll (with or without switching hands), but I have yet to apply it successfully. Also, remember now that since you got rid of your training blade, things actually get LESS complicated . Instead of trying to remember which side is the downstream side while upside down, keep it simple and roll up on your onside . As far as the 15 sec. mov. clips, I still use my tele. connection so download time is not fast. 1.9Mb would take me a looooooong time to download. Why would it take so much memory to show only 5 sec.? Even though it has taken me a while to download Clive's Eye's video clips, they show several minutes worth of footage for the amount of memory used.

Keep sticking that onside roll and let us know how that "whapping" works!

KNeal

[Old Fogy]

One thing that I noticed when trying to roll in a large wave train with the paddle upstream is that inevitably you come up just as you are climbing the upstream face of the next wave which knocks you over again. My solution to this has been to go back into the setup position and when you sweep out instead of keeping the blade planning to the surface I put a more abrupt angle on the blade, still keeping the leading edge toward the surface which turns the motion into a sweep stroke moving the bow of the boat downstream. Then when you roll up you are no longer parallel with the wave train and don't get knocked over.

[KNeal]

Since "Old Fogy" posted about rolling in wave trains, I was reminded of where I developed the ability to roll with the blade upstream. It was Middle Keeney in the New River Gorge ! As is still the case today, I usually get knocked over by one of the two wave holes located near the bottom of that rapid . Out of habit, I usually try to hit the left eddy, and being a lefty paddler, I get knocked over to my left with my paddle upstream. With the thoughts of Lower Keeney coming up with that hole at the top and the undercut rock dancing around in my water-soaked noggin, along with echoes of past horror stories about "Meat Grinder", I have become intimately acquainted with the efforts required to stick a roll, especially the first time . Better that than swim, again .

So, MHA (Mad Hatter's Assistant), be sure to purposely place yourself in situations where you have a GREAT desire to stick that paddle-on-the-upstream-side-of-the-boat roll and see how that feeds your abilities to succeed . Ha ha ha!! I'm kinda kidding! Keep us up-to-date.

KNeal

[The Mad Hatters Assitant]

Cheers all for your words of Wisdom, I suppose all I can do now is do me Rain Dance. When it rains it really rains, but at the mo we're busy burning our hides with the rays (we're yet to see some wet stuff to fill our Rivers) also generally we've to wait until October before we're allowed on the 'good' Rivers. Still Flat Water Freestyling beckons!