One of the cool things about Greenland rolling skills is that they add a very useful extra dimension to kayaking. Instead of just being right side up or upside down you can pause on your side which changes everything. Once you are free from the pressure of needing to roll or wet exit, you can relax more, which makes your roll a lot more likely to succeed in the first place!
In any kayak you can do this easily just by sculling the paddle on the waters surface, or if the kayak is reasonably low volume or you happen to have a lot of flotation on you can do it with just your body. Then when you’re ready to come up, a little push off the water is all that’s needed.
It’s a good exercise because it helps to break down the fear response that causes the core muscle tension that makes rolling harder than it needs to be. It’s also just a lot more realistic because with one exception, you’re almost never going to doing a real life roll in a set up position with momentum.
I am mostly a modern style paddler, and I can only do some of the Greenland rolls, but over over the years I found myself using Greenland skills in whitewater, surf kayaking, and even Kayak polo. The oldest video on my YouTube channel actually shows me doing this exact same maneuver in a creek boat during an emergency when I found myself running the worst possible line on a very dangerous rapid without a paddle.
___
This post was originally featured on our Instagram feed.
See the original post and discussion here.
