| Rolling from the Back Deck by Chris Joosse | ||
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The Bombproof Roll and Beyond, by Paul Dutky Kayak: The Animated Manual of Intermediate and Advanced Whitewater Technique by William Nealy Videos: Retendo Mouse over the images. The full back deck sweep roll
The sweep from halfway, using a setup
Josh demonstrates its use in the hole
After the normal sweep roll fails in swirly water, the
author continues the motion into a backdeck sweep. Bonus: if the
backdeck sweep fails, it sets you up for a normal sweep roll on the
other side :-) |
The 'back deck' or 'rodeo' or 'steyr' roll has been argued hotly in whitewater circles- is it safe? is it advisable? Doesn't it expose your shoulders to injury and risk your face a good walloping? It has a goodly number of detractors for a variety of reasons, but let no one say that it isn't an effective and fast roll, because it's one of the fastest rolls available, largely by dint of the setup being so available. In addition, there are circumstances where rolling from the back deck can be the only paddle roll available- so learning this style of roll can be a valuable addition to any paddler's bag of tricks. This article will discuss a method by which to learn and use the steyr roll, and it will discuss in turn the dangers involved in doing it incorrectly, or doing it in the wrong place and time. Before we get to any of that, we will discuss what the steyr roll is not:
How to do it We'll assume that you know how to do a sweep or c-to-c (or both), for now- and the elements are almost precisely the same: you will go through a setup process, sweep the paddle and snap the hips, and finish with your head coming out of the water last, just like the roll you already know. That's the good news. The bad news is that the steyr roll feels almost entirely unlike the brace or c-to-c. The steyr roll is a sweep-type roll, but with the direction of the power blade moving from your stern to your bow. The setup position is different in that instead of facing up towards the surface, the paddler is facing more or less down towards the bottom. Let's begin by visualizing, say, from a position in an office chair... one that swivels. lean over forwards, facing the floor, and swivel your torso so that you're facing to your left a bit, still bent over. Imagine the stern deck of your boat, just over your head. Now, swivel to the left a bit, and visualize your right paddle blade sweeping from the stern and towards the bow, climbing on it's power face- and as you swivel, visualize your hipsnap rotating the boat from on top of you to beneath you. You should finish, still facing the floor, but in the opposite direction- now looking down upon your imaginary bow. :-) Setting it up Let's begin upside-down, leaning up against the back deck of your boat, facing the bottom of whatever body of water you're in. Face it, this is a vulnerable position- if you were in moving water right now, Murphy's law would almost dictate that a rock would pick this moment to jam up into your solar plexus, bounce you off of it, and then you'd land on it with your face. This in mind, the first step is to change your vulnerability profile. We do this by turning your torso to one side or another... and your choice (which direction you turn) determines which paddle blade you're going to use. For our purposes, let's turn to our left, meaning that our right paddle blade will be the active one. Begin by cocking back the wrists (visualize opening the throttle on a motorcycle) and setting up. Note that for most paddles with >30 degree offset, the inactive blade will automatically climb when rolling up on the right, but will dig when rolling up on the left. For flatwater ambidexterity, a low-offset paddle will make this much easier when going to the left. When you do this roll in the hole, the moving water makes this maneuver much easier. During all of this, it is vitally important that you keep your hands in front of you- not off to the side, not over your head, and not behind you and over your shoulder- when you want to put your paddle over there, turn your torso in order to get there. keep your elbows bent and low, and avoid putting them higher than your shoulders. Okay, now that we've turned our torso (and head) let's talk about our paddle- the active blade (the one in our right hand) should by now have migrated to somewhere just off or under the stern of our boat, and because we've turned to our left and are facing as much toward the surface as we can, the shaft of the paddle should be roughly in front of our face. The right hand will be somewhere near your forehead, your right elbow should be tightly held across your torso (towards your left shoulder), and the only other detail you need to worry about is in getting your inactive paddle blade out of the water. The active paddle blade will be coming up by using the power face of the blade- that is, the face of the blade that you use when taking a forward stroke. The right wrist will feel pretty twisted in this position, but it can't be stressed too much that you want to keep your elbows in front of and below your shoulders. The alternative is a greatly increased risk of dislocating your shoulder. So, in short, the setup is merely a turn of the torso, clear the inactive paddle blade from the water, and get the active paddle blade over on the side on which you're going to come up. Yes, this is going to be fast. The Sweep The sweep begins from here- and now is the time that you're going to appreciate how much the muscles in your back have to do when you do a normal pulling sweep, because with this roll, it's almost entirely driven by your abdominal muscles. Many people cheat with a pulling sweep, using the strong muscles in the back and shoulders to get up, but in this roll the arms will serve primarily to hold the paddle- NOT to do the sweep itself. Again, this work is up to the abdominal muscles. Using the power face of the blade with a very slight climbing angle, sweep your active blade from the stern to the bow by coming forward in the cockpit (remember, you began this maneuver lying against your back deck). As your sweep brings you clear of the boat, snap your hips to bring the boat under you. Your sweep should carry you to a finish low over your front deck. If, by the time you reach the front of your sweep, you haven't come all the way up, simply reverse the sweep into a pulling one. Throughout the process, there never needs to be a moment where you're looking up- and unlike a pulling sweep or c-to-c that finishes on the front deck, there isn't a moment where you change the direction your head and upper body are facing- consider the sweep a constant exercise in looking more or less down. The Finish Again, the finish wants to occur over your front deck- but if you're not all the way up by then, you can easily reverse the sweep into a bow-to-stern sweep and come up as you would with a regular roll. Safety considerations: Because the finish will end with you essentially applying power to a high brace in a low position, (i.e., using the power face of the paddle down on the surface of the water) many will be tempted to let their elbows go out wide in order to 'get better leverage' on it. After all, this works with a low brace in the same position, doesn't it? The short answer is: 'well yes, but that's not how your shoulder works'. Keep your elbows in front of your torso and below your shoulders at all times. This is not a maneuver that you want to engage the power of your chest and arms on- your chest and arms should be used to hold the paddle still, while you do the stroke with your torso. The reason for this is that if you try to do this with your arms, with your elbows outside of that magic 'in front of your torso' plane, you can hurt yourself. The beginning of the setup will also look tempting to reach up over your head, and put your elbow in an outside position- after all, this would straighten your wrist and give you a better grip on the paddle, right? Well, it would do both of those things, but it would also place your shoulder in a position where it's not structurally stable. Remember, this roll also needs to be usable in the hole and if you load your shoulder in this position with your elbow essentially behind your back, you run a very high risk of injuring yourself. When you go upside down while facing down, the first thing you should do is to turn your head and torso to face the side you'll come up on. As quickly as possible, get your hand, elbow, and paddle shaft across your torso and between your face and any oncoming rocks. Better to take your lumps on the outside of your arm/hand/paddleshaft than on your nose, teeth, eyes, etc. Summary: I've spent a lot of time talking about the dangers involved in doing this roll incorrectly not because it's an inherently dangerous maneuver; to the contrary, it is both reliable and safe (and did I mention fast? ;-) when done correctly. Practice this! Be safe, and have fun. Do you have comments or questions? Let me know. |