How to Roll Your Kayak - Pro Advice on Rolling 

Some people are naturally good at explaining things and this guy is one of them.

Excellent! I've seen so many instructors let students fail and flail, never making that connection about building muscle memory based on successful rolling rather than failing to roll. Well done, well articulated.

Very good, thanks! After paddling for 25 five years, still learning little tricks to make my role better. You have alot of good teaching experience, its obvious in your videos. Thanks a bunch!

I think this is the best how to roll your kayak video . Thank you.

This is Korea. I'm learning kayaking. Your video helped me a lot. Thank you!!

Hey thanks for the great video. I sent this to my friend prior to his first day. After working on hip snaps and T rescues, he was able to roll on his first attempt.

This was awesome 👏🏾 rolling is 🔥can’t wait to see the series 🤩

This is easily one of the best instructional vids I've watched. Trying to roll past year, slowly coming together 👊 I never factored tension in til now. Thank you.

Great video thanks looking forward to your other rolling videos that you mention at the end

Very thorough, much appreciated!

Thank you for this great video Boyd!

Boyd very nicely said and looking forward to seeing the other videos and you are right the more relaxed you are the easier it is

Fantastic! Thank you. This guy really knows his stuff.

Fantastisk could not be explained any better, best I have seen

Super helpful!! Thank you!

Awesome video. Very excited to see the rest of the series!

Really great video. Very easy to understand. You seem like a great teacher

Excellent explanation of the technique. Definitely the best overall presentation that is easy to follow

Just wanna reach out to Boyd at Send school and say thank you your video has been super helpful Due to ur video I was able to self teach myself the brace and now going for lessons on the roll this winter

Great introduction to the roll video. That no hands roll was super impressive. I have a decent on and offside roll and my next goal is the hand roll. I had not seen a no hands roll before. Now I have yet another thing to add to the list.

Wow nice activity

Very imformative video, thanks for making it

Great Video.

Great informative video, can i add something, if youre using the side of the pool, i wouldnt recommend the pool side being any higher than a couple of inches above the water as this can lead to shoulder injury, especially if youre getting on a bit in age and or you hardly use your arms/shoulders in every day life. I did my rotator cuff in whilst practising on the side of the pool, the pool side is about 4-5 inches high and it put too much strain on my shoulder due to the higher angle. I would much prefer a student to use a pool or paddle float for the hip flick practising if the pool side is high. Another thing is that you do not really mention about opposite leg, i reckon stamping the opposite leg will lower it and very much aide in the flick :)

Such a fantastic instructional video. Good work, my friend!

Thank you kindly

Good stuff! Have just found and subscribed. Thanks!

1st: thank you for the video. I've paddled for many years, initially canoe and then kayak. Took chances, looking back that were foolish and got away lucky. I have never seriously considered learning the roll until I happened to click on your video. From your video, I learned things that I never realized before but after watching your video, several times did you change your set position when sitting on the dock and then when you were upside down in the water did you change to the right side? I going watch again because I'm not sure I am getting it. Or maybe watch a different video.

Amzing Video! Thanks a lot for me as beginner i thias great help

you are AMAZING!!

Great great rolling video

Best video I’ve found! Great explanation with detailed video showing the fine detail. You are definitely a talented instructor. Thank you for sharing. What would be your honest opinion of age limit for those who want to kayak and needing this fundamental technique? Thanks!

Top video, Boyd. Thanks for posting. I 'lost' my roll and spent several weeks with an instructor to get it back.

Getting the paddle out of the water is very difficult or impossible for some folks. Getting the paddle out of the water depends on their torso length, arm length, and flexibility. For some people, myself included, getting the paddle out of the water isn't feasible and I have a strong and reliable roll. For myself, I find that getting my paddle near the surface while getting my torso perpendicular to the boat and close to the surface combined with an effective hip-snap/knee-drive rotation is the key to rolling.

I can't wait for the hand roll video! I want to be able to do that hand roll with no hands. A no-hand roll I guess?

Bring on the 'how to teach the roll' video! VERY few good videos on that. Bring it on.

Good video, shared to club :).Personally I was surprised when you enphasised seperation of upper and lower body. I ended up rolling using the exact opposite idea where the sweep drives the hip flick.

Excellent video, Boyd, thanks for making this! So many things were said in ways I haven't heard before. It sure makes me realize I have a ways to go before achieving body separation because bringing my head up too soon kills me. I recognized this as being my opposite knee engaging to pull the boat back on top of myself...until you mentioned tension. I struggle with this, too, when stepping it up to bigger water and working on your video having to do with ""locking it in". Achieving the "lock it in" without tension and maintaining body separation all at the same time isn't as easy as you make it look! Also, what do you say to those of us who seem to have a hard time getting our front control hand above the water line? I don't know if it's my broad shoulders or what, but that is difficult for me. What I always try to do is make sure my rear hand is above the water, against the plastic, and "thumb up the butt" (how a female instructor got through to me your concept of not leaning forward but actually to the side while staying in the box). I found interesting the comments below having to do with wrist rotation relating to "on-side" and "off-side" rolls. I've started using my paddle at zero degrees and found I like it. I haven't really analyzed how my wrists are cocked forward as opposed to not but found my "off-side" roll to be easier and more reliable (I tend to dive my paddle when using the "on-side" roll)...now wondering if it's because as you say the left control hand remains more level as opposed to cocked forward and isn't so much the degree of the blade? There's also a comment you made below having to do with pressure on the blade in bigger water, eddys, below waterfalls, etc. I would love it if you could in the future elaborate more on that...sometimes I feel in bigger water that when I go to sweep, there's no purchase at all and my paddle just sinks. Can't wait until I can hand roll and pull off your no-hands roll. Great job on your videos. Hope you keep making content.

so calm to listen to lots of other vids are fast and frantic lol cheers

Thank you .

Thanks

I love your videos. Send me the instructor rolling video when you make it please!

@sendschool this may seem like a silly question When rolling from the onside set up position ? What hip am i hip snspping left or right 😊

You really help me On this vid

Interesting! I was taught to cock my wrists up now down like you described. My roll feels solid but not 100% will try this next pool session

I wish you could tell all those people who keep saying “don’t lift your head” ad nauseam that a lifted head is a symptom, not a cause.

excellent tutorial as always, cant wait for the others on this topic

When is the full series

Where is your school located? I just found your video and would love to learn. Thanks.

Thank you for subtitles, dude. I hope it will be in all such important videos. Can I get an answer? (from anybody). I really don't understand, why you teaching C to C roll? IMHO, the sweep roll is better in all case on a river. Maybe, because sweep roll is lot easier to learning?

Good stuff Boyd. I’ve got a pretty good roll on my on side and my off However, there are those few times where my paddle gets hung up which causes me to lift my head and I’ve seen a lot of instructors that will tell you to cock your wrist backwards to shed the resistance of the water so my question to you is, do you start off with your wrists cocked forward and then as you sweep, do you cock them back to shed the resistance or do you keep them cocked forward the whole time?

Hey Boyd I have a question for u I just bought a Medium Gnarvana and i only bought it based on that im too tall for a small antix 2.0 I am only 135 pounds with all my gear on so am i gonna have alot of issues paddling or should i be okay ?

You mentioned a rolling vid for instructors. However, I can’t seem to locate it. Can you help? Long time kayaker - love your channel. Thanks!

I've never been able to open my eyes underwater, and usually use glasses when kayaking. I can't see for shit underwater when I've tried (plus it's really uncomfortable) and feel like every big wave blinds the hell outta me in whitewater. Is there a special trick or do you just deal with it?

After doing my first few rolls I filmed myself and noticed that I don’t really keep my head down nor do I lift it up when doing the C2C. My head kinda stays neutral but I still get upright with a solid snap

Great info, thanks. However a lot more pool rolling video with voice background explaining would be much better

I still can't roll, and it's putting me off paddling when others are on the slarlom

First, you must do the underwater crunch and get that paddle as high as possible. Then do a medium fast sweep and throw the hardest and fastest hip snap ever. The key to the hip snap is timing. The reason you sweep is to get your body up high in the water and straight out from your boat so you can be in position to hip snap. People who suck at it emphasize the sweep and don't really have a hip snap. They try to do it all with the paddle and get half way up and then lift the head to get air. So the author is correct: a lifted head is not the problem - the problem came before the lifted head. When you do it right, you are using all your core muscles to get in the setup. Then you keep "crunching" to stay high underwater. The sweep and hip snap take little muscle - just technique. Then wait until you can feel the boat turn upright before you bring up your upper body, with the head and back shoulder drooping downward. It is against your basic nature - until you do it right, and then your body wants to do it right in order to avoid a swim. That is when it all turns around for you and you can actually do it in the river at the bottom of a rapid.

Don't agree about the head. The head controls the spine. Move your head down to the right fairly vigorously, the shoulders (locked perpendicular to the spine) move that way because you have curved your spine that way, altering the angle between your hips (attached to the boat) and your shoulders (atteched to the paddle by your arms.) C to c is about the curve of your spine, during the set up and at the end of the roll. The aim is to maximise the transition of the curve from curved over to the left to curved over to the right, whether a sweep or C to C roll. The head does this. Unless you freeze, as he says. That is why you have to get your head down and keep it down. If you don't get your head over to the right then you don't flex your spine far enough, or if you lift your head too early you straighten the spine which takes pressure off the paddle and stall the roll. Part of the trouble is the label "hip snap". It's not just the muscles controlling the lower part of your spine, the hips, but also about muscles higher up in your back controlling the upper part of the spine. A brilliant video otherwise. Thank you.

Tucking forward is for whitewater kayaking where rocks and other hard obstacles are in the way. It keeps you from bumping your head against them. Ocean kayaking is a different kettle of fish.

The C2C roll was actually invented by a guy called Michael (Micky) Mouse. I $h¡t you not!

Also if you try to roll on your own you can you know..... Drown.

All in all a great video. But your sweep roll demos aren't quite right in my opinion. You find a lot of pressure on your blade that shouldnt be there in a well executed sweep. Anna has a beautiful sweep roll that should be strived for. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dcEUR904gHI.html

@SendSchool i also ended up getting a small Gnarvana

Good stuff! I look forward to the full series.