Arkansas Canoe Club Forums

My first thirty or so attempts at hand rolling have yielded an astonishing lack of success. I'm wondering about my setup. So far, I've been curving my body into a "C" much like I do with my regular roll and then unwinding into a "C" the other direction except leaning further back. I've gotten the boat to teeter on its edge a few times but I always flop back over. The problem seems to be that I can't get my fat torso down low enough on the back deck to finish the roll. I end up too upright and my CG is too high. My idea is to set up by leaning back and pressing my head to the back deck before I even flip over. Then, once I'm underwater, lift one shoulder just enough to twist and wind up my body and then snap to the other side as I flail wildly with my hands, finishing with my head and body all the way down on the back deck. The physics of it seem to work in my mind but I still have the obvious concern of looking straight down at the rocks when I flip over. Not a problem in Beaver Lake but I wouldn't want to try it anywhere else. Hard to put in a paragraph, I know, but can anyone explain the setup for a hand roll? Any other tips? There will be all around when I finally conquer this thing!

Thanks!

~Dave

There's a pretty good explanation here:

http://www.paddling.net/guidelines/showArticle.html?222" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You can also try this....its a different angle than standard. It might give you some insight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNP1KjbVtQk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Joe

Ah-ha! Something just clicked! Use the left hand first and then the right. While the right hand thrusts, throw the left hand back over the left side of the boat to pin the left shoulder down on the back deck, lowering your CG. Let me contemplate this on the way to Beaver Lake for some more snap-snap-swim. Thanks for the links, guys! I think I'm a bit closer.

Also, you might try some webbed gloves, ping pong paddles, hand paddles etc IE something to give you a bit more surface area than a bare hand. Get the basic move down with the extra help then go to the bare hands

Not nearly as flexible as used to be but the one hand after the other routine worked for me pretty good, this lets your right hand stay in the water a bit longer as you roll over to to the deck, or at least does for me one hand gets the roll started and the other gives a lot of assistance, but it is mostly a good hip snap and keeping the head down till the rolling boat pulls you over the top

DMG wrote:While the right hand thrusts, throw the left hand back over the left side of the boat to pin the left shoulder down on the back deck

Haha...I was just about to ask if you were throwing your arm over. Good luck!

Ahh, more great tips! I couldn't see buying ping-pong paddles but I had enough rebate credit at Lewis and Clark to get a 170-gram Innova DX Aviar putt and approach disk. Put that frisbee in my right hand and I'm a rolling fool! Without the frisbee, well, give me a few more tries. I'm very close, though. Thanks again for the tips and we will all be drinking very soon!

~Dave