I went kayaking with Kurt Maurer yesterday, always a fun and learning experience.

I’ve been trying to get my roll down and to build a bit more confidence. While playing in the shallows, working on the hip snap, Kurt said “that hip snap was pretty weak” so I did another and promptly went all the way over. I guess that one was strong enough.. Now to find a happy middle ground.

After going to deeper water, I nailed 3 more rolls. On the last one, my paddle was not set for the sweep and I noticed it was starting to dive. I stopped the attempt and got the paddle in the right position and ended up with a very nice sweep, snap, layback and recovery.

Information I learned / had reinforced, was:

1) keep your head in the water as long as possible during the roll, it is the last thing out.

2) Hip snap, do it with a bit of conviction.

3) Make sure your set-up for the sweep is good *before* you start to sweep/roll up.

4) You have pleanty of time while inverted to do all this, take your time and get everything figured out. Same as: Dont rush the roll, you have a better chance of coming up if you take your time.

That’s about it for now, headed out to kayak with Anton tomorrow.

Tony