Learning to roll from “set-up” position or Home Base:
• Home base is the industry standard “best practice” place to begin an Eskimo roll. It is where your paddle is parallel to the boat on the left side of the boat for right-handers, and on the right side for left-handers. You reach as far as you physically can towards the bottom of the boat (bend over at the waist and reach for the hull with both hands while your paddle is on the left side of the boat, right hand forward, left hand at your butt)
• Now look at the right paddle blade, the back-face of the blade should be facing straight up to the sky. If it is not, your paddle will likely dive deep and not follow the right path along the surface, making the roll much more difficult. If it isn’t pointed up to the sky, cock your right wrist down, like letting off of the throttle on a motorcycle until it is pointed upwards.
• From this position, you will focus only on lifting your right hand up from its starting point by your left knee to overhead, reaching as high as you can get without allowing your hand to go over the boat. This means pushing your right hand overhead, bicep in your right cheek and right hand over on the left side of your head. The goal is to keep your right hand as far to the left side of your body as you can. (When you flip over, you are trying to keep your right paddle blade as close to the surface of the water as possible, and this achieves that goal).
• When you cock your paddle up over your head, double-check the blade angle. The power face should be pointed over to the right side of your boat and the blade should be parallel to the boat.
• Before you try going upside down and rolling up, practice this exercise at least 10 times right side up.
• Close your eyes and start in home position
• Lift your right blade up over head into roll position (straight overhead and right blade over the left side of the boat… like we just discussed)
• Imagine hip-snapping. (Time to Watch the video which will be illustrated much better than the written word!)
• OK – now is the real deal… you are going to do the Eskimo roll as it is defined by most instruction manuals and kayak schools… Get ready to tip over and repeat what we just learned…
• Uh – first- what about the fact we are underwater and everything is backwards? OK- that is a great question. The answer is don’t think about that. You need to move your body in the manner we just described. When you go upside down, you still need to move your body the same way. The challenge you have is to try not to be “too smart” and overthink this exercise. Tip over, lift your right hand over your head and keep it as far on the left side of the boat as you can.
• STOP – don’t try the roll yet. Get your friend to do one more Phase 2 with you to make sure you are focused on the only skill that actually matters, the hip-snap. If you do Phase 2 well, then try three Home Base set-ups, to roll position movements before you try the roll.
• NOW- tip over, cock your paddle up to roll position and hip-snap, and BINGO! You just rolled up!
Trouble Shooting
• OK, so you didn’t roll up… Only 1 of 3 things could have happened.
1. You panicked and can’t remember a thing… this is OK and normal. My first time tipping over in whitewater I panicked and swam, knowing how to roll. It was not the shining moment in my career in 1979 on the Kennebec River. Panicking isn’t a mental issue that you have. Panicking is what happens when your brain doesn’t have something to focus on and you are in an unknown environment. Being upside down in a kayak underwater is a perfect example of this. The secret to not panicking, is to choose what your actions are going to be, before you tip over. To be 100% clear, the smartest person in the world is an idiot when underwater and hasn’t planned their thinking in advance. Being underwater, and not being 100% sure of what you are supposed to do next, switches your brain to a very Neanderthal state of fight or flight. Avoiding panic requires a few things.
A. Run through what you are about to experience and need to do before you tip over. Rehearse.
B. Practice holding your breath… WHAT? Yes, this is a SKILL! Here is how it works…
(a) When you hold your breath, CO2 builds up in your blood and your brain monitors the level.
(b) When the level of CO2 gets above what it is used to, it triggers an automatic response that you are probably familiar with, you get the sudden urge that you need to take a breath.
i) Hmmm.. Ever wonder why some people free dive down in the ocean, swimming down to find what they are looking for, even if it takes them 3-4 minutes and are happy to do that? You can train yourself to hold your breath for a long time as free divers do. The free divers are not physical freaks. Their brains don’t trigger the “I HAVE TO BREATH RIGHT NOW” survival impulse at 20 seconds. Instead, they have trained themselves to not panic and some can have 3-4 minutes of good air on average.
ii) So- what am I saying? I am saying that you need to LEARN how to hold your breath comfortably. The good news is that it is VERY easy to do and you don’t have to try to be a record holder to be a good kayaker.
(1) To learn how to hold your breath for 4 times as long as you do right now comfortably (assuming you have not “trained” yet), try this
(a) Get a stopwatch ready and time yourself holding your breath.
(b) Now- try again, this time relaxing before you hold your breath and clear your mind of any extraneous thoughts.. (the hard part) You will likely increase your second try by 50%.
(c) OK, now, you are going for your personal best record of breath holding. This time you will hyperventilate (breath hard and fast) and try to not move a muscle that will burn up energy. Now take a big breath,, and go underwater and only think about how filled up your lungs are.
(d) Once underwater, think about something random, like the color of your car and when the last time you washed it… remember how full your lungs are.
(e) NOW- start counting, a little slow, 1,000/1, 1,000/2, 1,000/3… until you get to the number you WANT- like 60. You will find that you just held your breath longer than you have ever done in your life!
(2) What does it mean when you can increase your breath-holding comfort level? It means that you won’t panic prematurely. The average person panics at 10 seconds with no training and not expecting to have to hold their breath. The average person can hold their breath for 30 seconds without training. You don’t want to panic at 10 seconds if you are comfortable holding your breath for 30.
2. You never felt you got any real purchase on the paddle and it dove on you. This is very common as you are just learning the movement of taking your paddle from home base to “roll position”.
a) Your blade angle isn’t correct. When you are moving your paddle from set up position to roll position, it is “tracking” downwards to the bottom of the pool/lake/river. The fix is to cock your right wrist downwards, rotating the paddle about 90 degrees so it tracks or “sculls” upwards along the surface of the water, instead of diving.
b) You are moving the paddle too slowly and pulling it under the water while moving it. The paddle blade can support a lot of weight but only for an impulse and it can support much more weight when moving fast, especially if you are moving it in the sculling position with the blade angle upwards towards the surface. Try moving from home base to roll position quickly and begin your hip-snap as soon as you start moving your paddle.
c) You moved your paddle past roll position before you started your hip-snap. This is another common occurrence. If you wait until you are all of the way to the “roll position” which is where your paddle is perpendicular to the boat before starting the hip-snap and you are moving the paddle fast, by the time you are in the middle of your hip-snap, you can run out of stroke and be at the back of the boat. Begin your hip-snap earlier in the stroke.
3. You rolled most of the way up, but fell back in… This is the most common occurrence and it seems to confuse those trying to do the roll, even though the reason for it is always the same.
a) You lifted your head up – and your body came up with it, tightening the muscles on the left side of your body. This caused you to stop hip-snapping half of the way through the motion. The second you add your body weight to your paddle blade you are done. The boat will stop, you will hesitate while the paddle dives and you’ll fall back in.
(1) Solution 1: Look at your right paddle blade with your eye and point your nose at it through out the roll. This will force you to keep your head moving with the paddle, which is down and back.
(2) Solution 2: Make sure you go all the way to the back-deck with your head touching the stern deck. If you are doing this, your head AND body will stay as low as possible and the roll will be easy. Combine solutions 1 and 2 for the best results, of course.
b) Your paddle dove and then you lifted your head up – notice that I didn’t suggest that diving your paddle is enough to miss the roll. You can dive your paddle and still roll up as long as you do the full hip-snap, keeping your head down and back as far as it can go. However, when your paddle dives, you tend to go into survival mode and lift your head up for air, versus focusing on the hip-snap, which requires that you keep your head down.
4. Your knee slipped out of the thigh brace area. Often people think their outfitting is the reason they slip out of the thigh brace area. While having a tightly outfitted kayak helps you stay secure, holding your knees up and in the thigh braces is what you need to focus on, versus straightening your legs when trying to roll.
a) It is a common thing to straighten your legs when scared or trying to roll. This drops your knees out of the thigh braces and pulls them together. You will fall out of the boat during the roll if you do that.
b) If you lift your knees straight up into the deck of the boat, you could be lifted by the ends of your boat, upside down, and still not fall out. The way to keep your butt on the bottom of the boat is to put pressure on your knees straight up.
(1) Solution 1: Practice while sitting in your boat, lifting up against the deck of the boat with your knees until it flexes the boat. Notice that it forces your butt down into the seat. This is the muscle motion that you need when you are rolling to hold yourself in the boat.
(2) Solution 2: Make sure your outfitting is tight enough
(a) Hip Pads: You should have hip pads that are tight, but not uncomfortable.
(b) Back Band: You should have your backhand tight against your back, but still be able to lean all of the way back to the back-deck without hindrance.
(c) Foot support: You should have some pressure on your feet from your Happy Feet, Bulkhead, or foam blocks. This prevents you from easily straightening your legs or sliding forward.