Rolling Classes

 

Since 2005, I enjoy teaching rolls all over the world, like in several places in the USA, New Zealand, Japan, Newfoundland, Spain, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany.

Competing 2006 in the Greenland National Championship, I won the overall women’s class.

 

I am prepared to teach at any symposium or event, bringing along besides a bunch of paddles my own rolling kayaks:

When I’m flying in - I’ll fly with my Qaanaaq SS, a 4 pieces low volume Greenland style kayak. 

When I’m driving to the event with my van -  I’ll arrive with a variation of different rolling kayaks.

An exciting and educative rolling demo is always included.

 I do offer the experience of a complex and comprehensive rolling class, based on the Greenland style learning method.

This means, a person who has never rolled before, starts off best in one of my low-volume, easy to roll Greenland style kayaks, with a Greenland paddle. Once he feels comfortable upside down, has a good and reliable body movement and roll, he may want o switch to his own sea kayak. Hi might start there with the Greenland paddle first, then using his own paddle, whatever models they might be.

  

As in sea kayaking the layback roll is the most common method, the first rolls to learn will focus on that technique The student will end up with an effortless, slow, soft and smooth body movement and paddle handling. No (male…) *power*, a forced *hip snap*, *fighting the water* or *speed* is required, which is often likely to cause injuries, too.

I rather want the student to *feel* the water and their body movements in an extreme slow motion, sweeping the paddle with a loose grip softly over the surface of the water, rolling with eyes closed.

This has some kind of a meditative component, which will keep the student relaxed in any serious situation, where he can speed up the roll at any time then.

 

The first learning step is to focus on the relaxed perfect body movement. The student experiences the required body position in a static balance brace, works the body motion of the roll without a paddle backwards, with emphasizing on the second half (the first half is easier to get anyway… :-))  ) up to the recovery onto the back deck.

  

 He almost learns to hand roll, using a perfect twisted sideways deployment of the body, experiencing the power and necessity of a good arch in the back and having the head in the neck, coming out of the water last.

 The Greenland paddle is made for being used extended. When the student achieved already a perfect body movement in the roll, the sweep with the extended paddle should easily be done with two fingers only. They can concentrate to figure out the feeling for the right blade angle, which is essential to any blade they’ll use.

 

 A good side scull, ending in a sweep backwards to recover on the back deck is based on the same body position, the same feeling, the same motion. Working the roll backward is the key to success here, too.

 Once the extended standard layback roll is managed in a proper smooth, slow and soft way, they can do the same job with the non-extended paddle.

And this is what most of the beginner’s students can learn in 1/2 hr intense one-on-one instruction with me standing in the water besides the kayak…

 

To continue, they might want to learn their off side in the same way, often able to teach quickly themselves in the same step by step learning method as on their on side.

Then the student either wants to learn more Greenland style advanced layback rolls, or they might want to learn the forward finishing rolls, which are usually preferred by white water paddlers.

  

Kayakers having an (old fashioned…) sea kayak with a higher back deck, or some people with serious back issues might prefer a forward finishing roll, too. But for both methods, a bit of flexibility is not a disadvantage…

Or they want to switch to their own sea kayak and paddle, transferring their effortless skills to a (usually a bit harder to roll than my low volume Greenland style kayaks) "regular kayak" .

Or they might enjoy the fun of playing around with advanced rolls from kayak to kayak.

Anyway, quick learning success and fun is (almost) guaranteed! 

I would be more than happy if you might want me teaching on your event, too! Please give me a note!

freyahoffmeister@hotmail.com