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I met a woman last year who says that she has been kayaking for 4 years and has yet to learn how to roll. She has attended countless pool rolling sessions and had countless 1-on-1 with instructors, but just could not get it. Perhaps she got some poor form rolls off in a pool, but she says that she cannot roll nonetheless. So each year, she attends maybe 2-3 beginner trips with the kayaking club she is a member of and that is it. That is her kayaking experience. She also has someone paddle right next to her just to give her an added sense of security. These sorts of stories happen all the time in this sport. Kayaking is HARD. Learning a roll in my opinion is more counterintuitive than learning to golf – and I don’t mean miniature golf! I learned to hit a decent golf ball after a few trips to the range and watching some golf training videos. Learning to roll took me 8+ hours combined with watching 20+ Youtube videos on how to roll and working with two rolling instructors! This coming from a lifelong athlete with good eye-hand coordination, in good physical shape, and a fast learner. It is no wonder that I once read on mountainbuzz.com that the sport of kayaking loses 70% of its beginners their first year. It is no wonder that Craigslist and gear swaps are always full of gear beginners are ditching!
This woman I just mentioned I think is the exception to the rule. The fact that she has stuck with the sport for 4 years is surprising as most people would give up and say, “kayaking isn’t for me… I’m just not ‘getting it.’” This lady by now has a tremendous knowledge of proper form – even if she can’t execute it, she has river reading skills, experience, has learned all the basic paddle strokes and skills in all the various areas of kayaking… yet she can’t progress due to her inability to roll. Now this is fine, but for most, it would be discouraging because they are limited to only a handful of trips per year when their club does class 2. You give a person like this a Hi-N-Dry and it would change everything for them. They have all the support of their group and all the paddling skills and awareness of dangers of the water, and now they have the ability to have a reliable roll. That is the magic of the Hi-N-Dry and that is an example of a problem it can solve. Stories like that would apply to a lot of beginners I imagine and the sport’s retention rate of new paddlers could improve, leading the sport to grow in popularity - which means more money for instructors, shops, river preservation, etc - all of which benefits the sport.
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| Updated May 21, 2012 |  | | | |
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