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Maine Paddlers Learn an Essential Self-Rescue Move: the Kayak Roll

April 01, 2009 - CAPE ELIZABETH — A kayak roll sounds like a simple dance, easy enough to perform.

Head on shoulder. Hand in air. Snap the hip. Push the paddle.

But the directions for a kayak roll are elusive until you go from the pool deck to the floating kayak. Only then does it come clear: this one-two-three-four-step move is not as simple as a waltz.

However, without learning the correct steps, a kayak roll can easily go wrong. Now that Maine is creeping into spring, it's a prime time for kayakers to learn this life-saving technique.

And as a class last weekend at Cape Elizabeth High School showed, it's not that tough to learn – even for a beginner paddler.

Dan DeSena learned to roll in 20 minutes, and the Cape Elizabeth paddler had only been in a kayak three times before the class.

More experienced kayakers should learn it as well, if they haven't already. It's just one more move that can keep you safe.

Hans Hackett tried to execute a kayak roll with a bit of faulty paddle placement while upside down. But Hackett, also of Cape Elizabeth, is not new to kayaks. So he kept at it.

He reset underwater, ran through the correct steps from start to finish, and came out on top – literally.

"I like to see if they can regain their composure. When they can reset, that simulates a real situation," said instructor and Registered Maine Guide Scott Shea, who taught the class. "He lost his snap. He was all hands and paddle. That is what everyone thinks the kayak roll is."

IMPROVES YOUR CHANCES

Maine kayak guides say the roll won't necessarily save a paddler who is in danger of capsizing, but it can increase their chances in a sport that is inherently dangerous.

There were 34 boating fatalities in Maine during the past three years, and almost a fourth involved overturned kayaks, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

In 2007 alone, four of 14 boating fatalities involved kayaks.

Getting the roll right is about having your head, arms, hands and hips in the right places and running through the series of movements in the correct order.

It has less to do with the arms than the hips, Shea said.

One arm goes on top of the hull, while the other reaches up for air. The hip snaps, the head stays down, and the raised hand pumps the kayak paddle.

It's simple, effective and smooth when done perfectly. It also can be a bust if one step is skipped.

However, the hardest part of grasping the roll is in trying to visualize it. While learning it, myriad questions come up, such as: How is it done, what goes where, and how the heck are you supposed to hold your breath that long?

But even a lapsed cardio junkie (this paddler) found that when you're upside down thinking through the steps, your mind is focused more on the roll and less on your lung capacity.

In fact, this is the reason for taking a class – it makes it easier to visualize.

Shea says walking through the routine in a pool cements the "muscle memory" that helps a paddler perform the roll well in an emergency.

Other Maine guides say the ability to exit the kayak and get back in the boat should be learned as well.

"I think the ability to self-rescue and to paddle with a partner will reduce a lot of situations that people are getting into," said Ryan Linehan, kayak guide at the Chewonki Foundation.

Linehan added that anyone can have difficulty executing a kayak roll in rough waters, and this why other safety moves should be learned.

"Sometimes, it doesn't always work," Linehan said. "When the wind is whipping and there is surf and swells, it is a very different feel. In every kayaker's life, there is a time when you swim out of the kayak and need to get back in."

Linehan thinks fewer than 50 percent of kayakers know how to roll – and that's fine, so long as they paddle in pairs.

"Any kayaker who has been kayaking for long enough knows that the roll has failed them," Linehan said. "It's failed me, too. And I was glad I had a buddy to help me out."

Shea said other kayak safety moves should also be learned, and the buddy system followed.

But he pointed out that the ability to roll provides a paddler with the dexterity that may help avoid flipping over in the first place.

And Theresa Willette, owner of Coastal Maine Kayak, said while the roll is not quickly mastered, it can be quickly performed once it is.

"To roll a kayak, you have to be comfortable hanging upside down," Willette said. "It was invented by Inuit people. When they rolled their boat, they had to get back into it in five or 10 seconds. To get back into it takes a lot more physical strength, and cold water will zap you of that.

"Rolling a boat, I would say, is the ultimate in self-rescue."


By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, March 26, 2009


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