On Saturday Shannon, Christine and I met Dave Isbell at the pool for some rolling practice and lessons. Shannon is just fine tuning her various greenland rolls and trying to learn a few more rolls. I'm still learning the basics from Dave. Christine shot most of the rolling video and while it appears that Shannon was hogging the camera ... that isn't so. Whenever I thought I had perfected my roll and called Christine over for a video I lost my concentration. I guess I'm more comfortable behind the camera than in front of the camera.

Below is a compilation of the various video we shot. But watch carefully. Shannon included some important "safety" messages. When choosing kayaking partners it's important to know that they're as serious about safety as you are. And that goes for pool safety as well!



Afterwards, Dave and I had a chance to talk about the specs for the skin-on-frame (SOF) kayak he's building for me. As I mentioned in a previous post, we're working from the design of the Mystery and scaling it down. But it's not that simple. The hull had to be modified to fit within the constraints of a SOF design. Also the deck had to be modified from a SOF typical design to allow more room for my knees. The paddling position for racing is very different from the paddling position one uses in a tight fitting greenland style boat. So he took some more measurements.



The final kayak will probably be around 18.5 feet and about 18 inches wide. The hull is a stable hard chine hull with a good level of secondary stability ... not the rounded hull which is typical of a racing kayaks. But the waterline beam should be around 14 - 14.5 inches. So hopefully the narrower beam will compensate for the less rounded hull. Dave has been busy working on the design and cutting the wood. I'm anxious to see the kayak frame when he starts putting things together.

-Susanita

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I brought the drytop to the pool. The drytop really only keeps you dry when you're in the kayak. The water seeped up through the bottom and pretty soon all the air had escaped and I was soaking wet. But it kept me a little warmer. The pool is heated but when you're not swimming you eventually get cold ... or at least I do.



Shannon brought her Anas Acuta and Dave Isbell showed up with his skin-on-frame greenland kayak. Last summer I didn't try rolling at all in my Mirage and because it's not padded out I doubt I could roll it without a lot of effort. I was totally focused on perfecting the forward stroke and racing the surfski. But I decided this winter I would focus on learning to roll in the sea kayak. Since I started kayaking as a whitewater kayaker, I only know one roll ... the C to C. This is a great roll for whitewater but it's somewhat clumsy in a sea kayak especially if your kayak is loaded down with gear. So most sea kayakers do a sweep roll. And greenland kayakers have something like 50+ different kinds of rolls.

Shannon has a pretty good sweep roll in the Anas Acuta so her goal was to work on a few variations of the sweep as well as work on her hand roll. Here is a short video of her best hand roll.




Here's Shannon trying to reenter her kayak in the pool ... unsuccessfully ...



And here is Dave Isbell rolling ...



After watching Dave and Shannon rolling effortlessly it was time for me to try. Dave padded out the skin-on-frame so I would have maximum leverage with my knees and instructed me in the basics of the roll. Then he had me practice skulling. I have never skulled in my sea kayak .. mostly because I didn't know how. I was surprised how easy it was.


Once I could right myself over the kayak from the skulling position he explained how to layup and follow through on the sweep roll. I had a few problems getting the greenland paddle in the correct position but overall it was very smooth and easy. And despite the fact that my technique "sucked" ... I did it. Next goal will be to perfect the sweep and then learn how to do it in the Mirage ... which is not really a "rolling kayak" like the greenland style boats.

-Susanita