Rolling
So we've been limping around for the past two days because on Monday night we went to a kayak roll class at the pool at the university and discovered whole new muscles we don't have but can still make very sore. Rolling is a skill we don't really need on the kind of rivers we run and probably couldn't do in our kayaks anyway, but we like whitewater rafting and it might be fun to try it kayaking sometime too.
Anyway, a kayak roll is supposed to look more or less like this:
What we were doing looked a little bit more like a dying fish on the end of a line - lots of struggling and flopping about before finally giving in to the inevitable, which in this case meant tapping frantically on the up-ended hull of the kayak until the instructor flipped us back over by hand. I suppose that's about all I should have expected of myself in any activity where you're told up front that "it's all in the hips."
Just to scare you, Mom, here's a video of some people rolling on Pillow Rock rapid on the Upper Gauley, the river we ran in West Virginia a few months ago (after the raft and first kayak). We were in a raft with an experienced guide and that was scary enough. I'm not sure this would really qualify as "fun".
Anyway, a kayak roll is supposed to look more or less like this:
What we were doing looked a little bit more like a dying fish on the end of a line - lots of struggling and flopping about before finally giving in to the inevitable, which in this case meant tapping frantically on the up-ended hull of the kayak until the instructor flipped us back over by hand. I suppose that's about all I should have expected of myself in any activity where you're told up front that "it's all in the hips."
Just to scare you, Mom, here's a video of some people rolling on Pillow Rock rapid on the Upper Gauley, the river we ran in West Virginia a few months ago (after the raft and first kayak). We were in a raft with an experienced guide and that was scary enough. I'm not sure this would really qualify as "fun".
posted by Matt | 8:56 PM
2 Comments:
So when I was briefly in college, the one thing I did manage to learn was how to do a kayak roll. At least in the pool I could do it. I was not able to repeat the feat once I was in a river.
It is indeed all in the hips. You must twist and hurl your hip skyward with more power than you have ever moved your hip before. All the strngth in your body must flow to your hip. Pretend it is a hideous insect that you are throwing away from you. Pretend it a tomato that you are throwing at Vanilla Ice. The whole rest of your bodyshould go limp, as every ounce of strength you have goes to your hip as you fling it.
At least, that's how I remember it.
Happy kayaking!
When I was on the side of the pool I could get the hip action down pretty good when I had something solid to push against - it was trying to get the paddle in the right position to provide some resistance out in the middle of the pool that seemed more or less impossible. I'm pretty sure everybody else in the world who can do it is somehow cheating.
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