On August 9 Twin Rivers Paddle Club highly-experienced members Terry Rich and John Burt conducted a rescue and roll clinic on Martin Marietta Park Lake. The students were yours truly Bob Laney and highly-experienced member Ginger Motes. I worked on my heel hook self-rescue with instructor John, while Ginger worked on her roll with instructor Terry.
Ashamedly, I failed to follow my own advice from my prior self-rescue practice. I recently posted a report about my not being able to fit my Euro blade paddle between the deck cleats of my kayak because they were too close together. I stated the good sense rule to test your gear before leaving the house. Today at Martin Marietta, I correctly brought a Greenland blade paddle, but I failed to test it before driving to the lake. Once I was in the water, to my chagrin, my back deck had an upward protruding hump, which prevented placing the Greenland blade under the new, stiff and tight new cords.
John and I had the joint idea to insert the blade under the cords further towards the stern, where the deck does not have a hump, and the cleats are further apart, allowing the cords more room to stretch.
I was right to take this class, because I still did not know what I was doing wrong. My first three attempts failed. The conclusion is that when I did two successful rescues at a clinic last February, I was just lucky. Today, after each effort, John patiently, wisely and kindly made suggestions of what to change. Eventually, I made a couple of complete rescues. But, they were a little ragged and difficult. John advised me to keep practicing, which I will do. I need to smooth out several parts of the procedure, involving keeping my hand on the paddle handle with float for balance but not pushing down on the handle; grabbing the far side static cord and pulling my chest horizontally across the back deck; straightening my legs without pulling down on the cockpit rim with my heel; and rolling into the cockpit while keeping my seat back pushed our of the way. After getting balanced, I need to spend some time pumping a lot of water from the cockpit. I will also practice some cowboy rescues to see how I fare with them.
In addition to what I learned to do better, just as importantly, I learned what I cannot do, and not to push it. After the rescue lesson, John and I tried the first step of a roll. While my lower body remained in the cockpit with the spray skirt on, I held out one hand gripping the middle of the paddle shaft, arm fully extended sideways, and turned myself and my kayak one quarter rotation towards that side. The paddle floated on the water surface, and I put my head and both shoulders flat on the water. Due to my weak and inflexible back, from a 40-year-old- injury I got while trying to learn to roll, just getting in that horizontal position hurt.
Then, when I attempted to roll up vertical, using my lower leg, thigh brace and body core, I could not come close. I could not budge the boat. And, within a few seconds, I developed vertigo. I felt so dizzy and nauseous that I had to immediately get John to pull me up. This series of events repeated three times. John and I concluded that the roll is not a skill that I will develop. And, I should stop trying, so as to prevent a potential further injury.
Afterwards, Ginger commented that her roll is a work in progress.
Terry and John reminded me several times each, the same as they have done in all our prior classes, that paddlers need a lot of flexibility and core body strength. I have set myself the goal every day to do stretches, flexibility exercises, and some committing athletic event, or make a trip to the YMCA weight machine room.
