Friday 11 January 2008
There is an excellent rolling discussion developing on UKRGB called •≈ Rolling in Anger, & linked here.

So far I've stayed out of it, & had to bite my tongue a few times already, but it's interesting the ideas kayakers have about spacial awarness, the hip snap myth & difficulties & relevancies of rolls &/or rolling ability within sea or white water kayaking. The comparison of a Euro rhetoric to Greenlandic approaches is equally interesting. If I, & other practitioners of the art, can perform nearly all roll sets with a broom handle & in harsh sea conditions, how relevant is the paddle, kayak, PFD, hairstyle, versus technique & fluidity...

Try to think of a roll as having no beginning or end; more, an integral part of a sea kayaking journey. Do you remember those circular stencil drawing toys that were around in the 70's? Spirographs. You never knew how the pattern would turn out, but you immersed yourself in the game.The discovery. Think of the hands, paddle, or broomstick drawing a pattern inside that as the outer completes one circle of rotation. Everything happens becuase of the force on the internal bar, no muscling, just roll over. Another example: A roundabout in a childs playground can be stopped in jerked grabs from the outer edge, but becuase of the momentum it will rip the stopee along with it. A roll executed from the centre is similar. Try grabbing the middle of the roundabout in the centre & stopping it. Impossible. So if the execution of the roll is strong from the axis, everything else will follow. I have demonstrated this with two heavy people bear hugging either end of the kayak & managed to hand roll without hindrance.
The kayak wants to self right, & that in short, is the truth. The only time rolling should hurt is when you bang yer heid on the the stones in the sea or riverbed becuase it's to shallow, Qajaasaarneq training aside.
:o)
The passenger who misinterprets these physics is the one who stops it happening. Analysis beyond the lesson of physical application is just that. It complicates any execution of the roll you are attempting, thus you are doing it wrong.

The first job of the novice then, when sat in a sea kayak, is not get in the way of a perfectly natural process. His second, is to compliment or move with & aid that process. It's all in the approach. It's an odd thing that a kayak will roll perfectly without a person aboard, yet many kayakers when learning, seem to be intent on stopping it from doing so. :o) Just as we must become the change we want see in the world. The qajaq wants to self right.

Ergo

You cannot organize freedom
 
posted by •≈ Sgian Dubh at 15:59:00 |


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