Archive for the ‘Rolling’ Category.
5/4/2008, 13:37
Monday evening the small but stalwart rolling group of my sea kayak club met up for the last rolling session of the winter.
Four of us accomplished what we set out to do – attend at least 8 rolling sessions from January to March – all Monday evenings in the harbor. As a result we awarded ourselves the prestigious Penguin Award. Looking forward to flash the penguin medal on my cap this summer…
Enjoying my 8 kg Surfmachine while Morten glares from a 25kg freighter. Photo: Niels Chr. Hansen.
The rolling will go on. In less than two weeks time Freya Hoffmeister will join us in a session before giving a presentation on her New Zealand trip[danish].
8/1/2006, 23:48
Saturday I took Miss Moskito to a pool session. Now while indoor kayaking is the hallmark of lazy wimpy sissy paddlers, it can be rewarding. I think I figured out what it takes to consistently roll the Moskito Monster with a wing paddle. The trick is to do a forward sweep roll with a slow pronounced wide sweep. The upperbody must be in the surface when the paddle reaches the perpendicular position. At that time you apply downward force in a pulling/sculling S-motion and flip up.
I also got to play around in the new Valley Anas Acuta HV(Q-boat). I noticed the boat wasn’t as easy to handroll as a regular Anas Acuta and my interest faded away. I’m sorry but I don’t get that kind of boats. Why would you want a boat like that if not for rolling. You’re not going to paddle it right?
Sunday was time for a new 10 km race. A fellow paddler wanted to try my Moskito so I went in his Vajda CivetCat(K1-trainer).
We only managed to get the seat and footrest adjusted two minutes before the start. I was too stressed out to figure out the frigging sprayskirt and drinking tube and gave up on the skirt. The CivetCat turned out to be a nice little boat. Way more stable than the Moskito and easier to turn. Still I guess the boat would be a submarine if paddled in real waves. Often when drafting in 5-8 cm waves the low volume stern would dive rather deep. The footrest was equipped with a pullbar – which was a first for me. Now I want one for the Moskito.
More photos from the race at my club’s homepage.
1/1/2006, 13:46
Saturday noon I met with a group of my kayaking club for a swift new year rolling event.
As the photo demonstrates, we were properly dressed and equipped in our hitech eskimo outfits. Neoprene/rubber tuiliks, fleece balaclavas, neoprene mukluks, neoprene gloves/mitts and reinforced epoxy greenland paddles made from western red cedar.
The weather however would make an old inuit hunter feel right at home. More photos at our club’s homepage.
Here’s for a happy new year of kayaking!
11/12/2005, 23:05
A week ago the Moskito and I went to another 10km race – this time arranged by the kayak club in Randers. The water was completely flat so gravity was no trouble at all. In fact when rounding the buoys along the course, I was able to aggressively edge the boat to make sharper turns. As for the result – well I’m improving…
In four weeks there’s another race. This time I’ll properly switch boat with dutch Sjef Schlappi. He’ll be paddling my Moskito and I get to try his Vajda CivetCat.
Now as for rolling there’s quite some activity in my kayak club. Every thursday evening a handfull of members play greenlanders and perform as many of the greenland style rolls as our skills and the water temperature(currently 5° C) permits. Last time I used the Moskito and completed some 5 or 6 different rolls. I’d say the standard roll in the Moskito is clearly harder than the handroll in the Inuk.
18/10/2005, 22:16
I went for a quick rolling session tonight. A fellow member shot some photos and (low resolution) videos of the rolls.
But first we did the classic kayaker-next-to-vertical-kayak setup:
Videos:
Forward sweep roll worked rather well. The paddle comes up prepared for a brace. This works much better than the storm roll with a wing.
The normal layback style sweep may look fine on the video but as you can hear from my complaining I’m far from happy. The cockpit coaming really hurts the back.
I also did some reentry-and-roll training which mostly worked fine. However one clip demonstrates two problems. The high buoyancy in my vest makes it hard to come around and the storm roll sucks with a normal grip with a wing.
Division Racing in Denmark:
Danish Design:
Surfer in a Surf Kayak:
Kattegat x2:
Tour de Gudenaa 2007, Saturday: