I’ve been teaching my friend Angel how to roll. We had a few tries at a local lake in the past month but recently we got the okay and stored my kayaks in her neighborhood pool. We went there Monday and Wednesday morning for some practice. She got her roll Monday morning and Wednesday she nailed about 30% of her attempts. Saturday night after work we went again and oh wow, she hit about 80%!
I’ve taught some other friends here how to T-Rescue (aka: boat rescue) but I really had been lacking the confidence in myself to teach someone the roll. With the help of EJ’s Rolling and Bracing DVD, played numerous times, re-played and explained/translated, she got a clear idea of the process. I’ve watched the advanced roll part and continued to push my own roll techniques further. I can roll with the paddle straight down, with hand paddles and occasionally with my hands (about 30% of the time). I’ve lost so much weight that I hadn’t noticed I’m falling out of my seat now when upside down. I’ll get some hip bads and keep working on my hand roll.
I just had to share my excitement! Soon we’ll get her in some moving water and see how that goes.
Problems: Head is coming up, I can help her with that, but also she isn’t keeping her left hand back. That’s been the biggest problem for her. I’m trying to be a bossy teacher sometimes and make her go through the steps while upright, over and over, to build muscles memory. Any suggestions?
A couple more pictures for ya’ll to see:
Sara and Angel taking the boats out to play. No helmets or skirts here, just flat water.
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