C-Forum

Hi

I have been kayaking for a few years now and have recently started paddling C1. I can roll and brace fine on my onside, but was wondering, if you begin to capsize towards your offside, is there anything you can do? (except to set up for a roll)

and also, if you are in a hole and find yourself in a position where you would want to be able to roll up on your offside, is it possible to without using a handroll?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Peter

If you are paddling a low enough volumne boat when you loose your balance on your off side a quick double ender inniatiated with the bow can be a pretty flashy save, and you can tell your buds you meant to do that.

As far as off side rolling, it depends on the strength of the hole. If the hole is strong enough an off side high brace will bring you right up. I think off side rolling is best perfected in calm water as it can be a shoulder destroying experience if not done correctly

Hi

Thanks for the reply, do you know of any sites or books / dvds that demonstrate the technique of offside braces / rolls ?

Thanks

Peter

Get "Thrill of the Paddle" from Paul Mason / Mark Scriver, although it is more geared to open boaters it has photo sequences showing offside braces, rolls and even hand rolls. A lot of the info in there translates to C1.

martin

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... 8?v=glance

Another technique to try is the righting pry. From Tom Foster's & Kel Kelly's book "Catch Every Eddy...Surf Every Wave", a righting pry is "a pry executed near the paddler's onside hip in order to prevent the craft from capsizing to the offside". The righting pry is a quick, strong and efficient action to take.

I've found that a strong cross-forward stroke has a pretty good bracing effect in most boats.

I'll agree with sqbtr that low volume boats help. In my Acrobat if I'm about to flip I'll just stuff one end of the boat under water . Most folks think you're playing & don't realize that you nearly flipped .

Heidi also has a good suggestion with the righting pry. This is an aggressive stroke that is most effective in good current.

That righting pry is essentially how I stern squirt. When it works as a recovery move, it looks cool. When it fails, you flip most dynamically....

Hi

Thanks for all the replies, they have come in handy. When you talk about shoving the bow under, do you mean as if you were doing an offside cartwheel (im just finding it hard to picture it any other way)?

Thanks

Peter