Not as easy as it looks
Rolling a kayak is not as easy as it looks. OK maybe to some people it doesn't look that easy. But a lot of people take kayak rolling classes and a lot of people can do it. And when someone is showing off that they can roll a kayak, generally they perform a quick smooth roll, they don't miss. These apparently are people who have practiced a lot and wouldn't be showing off if they didn't know they could roll consistently.
After having resisted for many months I finally decided that learning to roll is the next step in my kayak credentials so I signed up for the California Canoe & Kayak class taught in the warm waters of the Richmond High School pool. There were a lot of people there for the weekly practice session. Just one other girl and I who were first timers. Her boyfriend had been trying to teach her to roll for sometime without success, I was starting from scratch. The two of us were to be taught by Keith, the owner of CCK and I have to say he's a great instructor. Part of learning something where you're going to spend a lot of time underwater is trusting the person teaching you is not going to let you drown. So Keith spent a lot of time talking to us in a very calm, friendly way so we could get to know him while also learning the steps involved in the kayak roll.
Another part of learning the kayak roll as it is in many things is to be relaxed. I am not a relaxed person, never have been. Though I think I'm much more relaxed now than at any other time in my life. When an instructor tells me to relax I generally say I am relaxed and they say no you're not, you're very stiff. That's just the way I am.
The actual instruction went something like this: Keith told us what were going to do, we went through the motion while sitting in the kayak, and practiced a few moves while tilted to the side, then the instructor dumped me over and my mind went blank. It took a few tries before I remembered oh yeah I'm supposed to be moving into the set position while I'm under here. Everything is different when you're upside down.
Surprisingly I wasn't that worried when under water, once you get a flood of water up your nose a few times it stops being bothersome. What worried me was I couldn't seem to get the kayak to come around. I'm not really sure why, after talking about it with Keith for a while we sort thought I might be using both legs instead of just pushing with the right one. It did work better when I disengaged my left leg from the side of the boat. But there's still something I'm not getting about the whole thing. I've thought about it for a day or two now and I think I'm starting to understand it all a little better. So I may try again after I think about it a little more and maybe have someone explain it to me in more detail. Or I may decide kayak rolling is something I don't really need to do.
After having resisted for many months I finally decided that learning to roll is the next step in my kayak credentials so I signed up for the California Canoe & Kayak class taught in the warm waters of the Richmond High School pool. There were a lot of people there for the weekly practice session. Just one other girl and I who were first timers. Her boyfriend had been trying to teach her to roll for sometime without success, I was starting from scratch. The two of us were to be taught by Keith, the owner of CCK and I have to say he's a great instructor. Part of learning something where you're going to spend a lot of time underwater is trusting the person teaching you is not going to let you drown. So Keith spent a lot of time talking to us in a very calm, friendly way so we could get to know him while also learning the steps involved in the kayak roll.
Another part of learning the kayak roll as it is in many things is to be relaxed. I am not a relaxed person, never have been. Though I think I'm much more relaxed now than at any other time in my life. When an instructor tells me to relax I generally say I am relaxed and they say no you're not, you're very stiff. That's just the way I am.
The actual instruction went something like this: Keith told us what were going to do, we went through the motion while sitting in the kayak, and practiced a few moves while tilted to the side, then the instructor dumped me over and my mind went blank. It took a few tries before I remembered oh yeah I'm supposed to be moving into the set position while I'm under here. Everything is different when you're upside down.
Surprisingly I wasn't that worried when under water, once you get a flood of water up your nose a few times it stops being bothersome. What worried me was I couldn't seem to get the kayak to come around. I'm not really sure why, after talking about it with Keith for a while we sort thought I might be using both legs instead of just pushing with the right one. It did work better when I disengaged my left leg from the side of the boat. But there's still something I'm not getting about the whole thing. I've thought about it for a day or two now and I think I'm starting to understand it all a little better. So I may try again after I think about it a little more and maybe have someone explain it to me in more detail. Or I may decide kayak rolling is something I don't really need to do.
Labels: kayak
| 10:54
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