To help me reinforce the success of day 2, I decided to head straight back out the following day for another rolling session.  I have to admit I struggled a bit with the physical exhaustion of the previous day’s rolls, and never really felt quite as balanced as I had finished up the day before. That being said, I nailed the first 4-5 rolls before failing one, and continued that sort of hit-rate for the remainder of the session. Importantly though, after each roll I knew what I’d messed up – not enough hip snap in this one, too short a sweep on that one, and so on.

Needless to say it’s a heap of fun and I can’t wait to practice some more!

Cheers – FP

Tags: eskimo rolling, eskimo rolls, rolling

Fat Paddler ready to get wet

An early but gorgeous paddle on Middle Harbour with paddling mate JF Englert kicked off just after 6am as the sun was coming up.  At the end of it, we decided to have a little rolling practice session so I could try to reinforce what I’d learnt the previous week with Rob Mercer.

For the first dozen or so attempts, I just couldn’t it right, with JF pointing out some issues I had with my action. Then JF had a go and after trying to remember his long-forgotten rolling skills, instead learnt some wet-exit and re-entry skills! Eventually though his persistence paid off and he started to string a few rolls together.

After seeing his success I got back in the boat and started to slowly try some new rolls… hitting it and getting one right. Then the next attempt worked too. And the next. Then finally we started to video my attempts, the montage of which is here for your viewing pleasure.

Needless to say very happy with this next step, although a quick look at the video shows I have a lot to brush up on. But hey, at least I know I can haul my fat self out if I need to – haha! Enjoy – FP

Tags: eskimo roll, eskimo rolling, kayak, paddling, rolling, Video