Combat Rolling
No this isn't a post about rolling through the dirt in combat. I recently started kayaking and I figured I must share some things I have learned about the sport. First things first: it is scary as shit being inside a boat stuck upside down under water!!! It goes against every instinct in your body (Don't be stuck inside of something, Don't be upside down under water, Don't panic whilst being upside down under water). The first thing you have to learn when wanting to become a white water kayaker is the expensiveness of the gear which you must have:
1: PFD - Personal Flotation Device $100
2: Helmet - Preferably a composite helmet $100
3: Spray Skirt - Keeps water from filling up your boat $100
4: Paddle - anywhere from $100-300
5: Kayak - $500-1000
That's just to get started. There's all kinds of bells and whistles to buy after that (But I must admit that it's cheaper than golf) It's a lot like all outdoor sports though: expensive to start, but gear should last a while.
Now the learnin part. The next thing you learn about after the expensive gear is the "Roll". When a kayak flips over (with either a white water or touring kayak) you can't just get it to right itself by struggling to get your head above water. If you try to get your head above water without performing the proper movements with your body and paddle, you'll only be stuck upside down... under water. You have to perform a complex series of movements that involve bracing your body against the boat and snapping your hips to get the buoyancy of the boat to work in your body's favor. The last movement you must perform is keeping your head tucked down (as in away from the air above the surface) so that it keeps your body in the right position for the boat to flip back over (naturally when first trying this you try to lift your head out of the water which only forces the boat to roll back over; the head must be the last thing to exit the water). Once you can do this somewhat confidently, you are said to have a Roll. Once you perform this roll in moving current (one typically learns their roll in calm waters like a lake or pool) you are said to have a combat roll.
I have combat rolled only once. The second time I tried I was fascinated at how the different water features shook both my body and my kayak. Oh did I forget something? How, if I didn't combat roll the second time I tried, am I still here? One thing I forgot to mention was if you don't roll up, you pop your spray skirt off of the rim of the kayak and swim out of the boat. This is better than drowning but only by a little bit and here's why: once you leave the boat you leave 60-70 gallons of air keeping you at the surface of the water, this means you can get foot entrapped in the rapids or banged up on rocks, also you can lose your expensive equipment by swimming. Clearly it's another one of those extreme sport for adrenaline junkies, much like climbing ;-)
There's your kayak lesson for the day. It's about all I know so far ;-) Ideally I'll be able to update on the PA School thingy by the end of the week ;-) in an Un-Ideal world I could have to wait until August... :-/
1: PFD - Personal Flotation Device $100
2: Helmet - Preferably a composite helmet $100
3: Spray Skirt - Keeps water from filling up your boat $100
4: Paddle - anywhere from $100-300
5: Kayak - $500-1000
That's just to get started. There's all kinds of bells and whistles to buy after that (But I must admit that it's cheaper than golf) It's a lot like all outdoor sports though: expensive to start, but gear should last a while.
Now the learnin part. The next thing you learn about after the expensive gear is the "Roll". When a kayak flips over (with either a white water or touring kayak) you can't just get it to right itself by struggling to get your head above water. If you try to get your head above water without performing the proper movements with your body and paddle, you'll only be stuck upside down... under water. You have to perform a complex series of movements that involve bracing your body against the boat and snapping your hips to get the buoyancy of the boat to work in your body's favor. The last movement you must perform is keeping your head tucked down (as in away from the air above the surface) so that it keeps your body in the right position for the boat to flip back over (naturally when first trying this you try to lift your head out of the water which only forces the boat to roll back over; the head must be the last thing to exit the water). Once you can do this somewhat confidently, you are said to have a Roll. Once you perform this roll in moving current (one typically learns their roll in calm waters like a lake or pool) you are said to have a combat roll.
I have combat rolled only once. The second time I tried I was fascinated at how the different water features shook both my body and my kayak. Oh did I forget something? How, if I didn't combat roll the second time I tried, am I still here? One thing I forgot to mention was if you don't roll up, you pop your spray skirt off of the rim of the kayak and swim out of the boat. This is better than drowning but only by a little bit and here's why: once you leave the boat you leave 60-70 gallons of air keeping you at the surface of the water, this means you can get foot entrapped in the rapids or banged up on rocks, also you can lose your expensive equipment by swimming. Clearly it's another one of those extreme sport for adrenaline junkies, much like climbing ;-)
There's your kayak lesson for the day. It's about all I know so far ;-) Ideally I'll be able to update on the PA School thingy by the end of the week ;-) in an Un-Ideal world I could have to wait until August... :-/
posted by 13ismyluckynumber at 5:16 PM
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