The Kayak Forum is Sponsored By
|
|
|
| |
Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board
rolling?
Posted By: risto lappalainen In Response To: Re: Psychology of rolling? (Therese)
Date: Wednesday, 29 November 2000, at 12:53 p.m.
: Here is my question to you and others on this board: somewhere in my readings
: or talking to someone (I can't remember where) I was given the impression
: that a Feathercraft would be a harder kayak to roll because of the internal
: sponsons. When you say that some kayaks need to be "vaulted" over
: initial
: resistance would this include my Feathercraft ?Therese,
I have no personal experience on Feathercrafts, so I can only say that "Yes, I suppose so..." based on my general impressions on this type of boat.
But I'll elaborate on my earlier statement, as this should allow you to judge the relevance for your particular craft.
I made my first rolling attempts solo using a SeaLion which is a high volume plastic sea kayak of middle-of-the-road design. They all failed dismally.
Later I took a pool course where all the boats were small WW plastic play-boats, all looking the same to me at first. But they were not the same. Two different designs (very round hulls) were much easier for the first-time roller: they would roll smoothly as I swept the paddle and little force or technique was needed.
The rest were more difficult (hulls with chines, or sharpish lines running the lenght) and it took me several sessions to graduate from the easiest two to these. But having acquired at least some technique I made the transition and then only used these to trim my roll by shortening my extended grip on the paddle, a good way to force one's way towards better and more consistent co-ordination, by the way.
When time came to try the off-side roll, I again had to go back to the easiest boats in the pool.
Then came the next step ie. rolling the SeaLion, and again the same problem: due to the much larger size and higher volume I found myself facing a new hurdle almost as high as the first roll had been in the easiest of boats. Here the trick was to start with the fully extended Pawlata roll, using an unfeathered large-blade paddle on my better side. This way I got a feel for that boat, and could start working towards "normal" screw rolls etc.
Today of course if I go back to those WW boats they all seem ridiculously easy to roll, but I have not forgotten how big the difference was when I had no technique to speak of.
So my approach would be to make sure the first attempts are made with the easiest boat around, and I believe that it would either be a small, round WW boat or possibly also a Greenland type kayak especially designed for rolling.
But the teacher or instructor should know which of the boats available are easy and which are not. You should ask and persist, make sure you get the easy one for the first attempts.
If the teacher does not respond to this request or does not see the point, then he is not on your side: maybe he has never considered the students' problems but has just been telling them how it best works for him.
Very often the best expert may well be a really poor teacher, because everything is so plain and easy for him. But the best teachers are those experts who can come down to the level of the absolute beginner and look at the problem from his point of view.
To go back to the Feathercraft: I am sure you will be able to roll it, at least after you have first learned the necessary technique. But it may be far from the best boat to learn with.
My view is that learning to roll should happen step-by-step, and that by-passing major steps (intentionally or because one does not understand them) very easily jeopardizes the whole process.
risto
| |
Sea Kayaks Techniques Bulletin Board is maintained by Nick Schade - Guillemot Kayaks with WebBBS 5.12.
|
Kayaking Technique |
|
|
|
