Under the Sea - Sculling Brace Practice

Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea
Alan Menken & Howard Ashman

I totally agree with Menken and Ashman - 'Darling its better, down where its wetter'.
Sculling brace; submerged meditation; devotin' time to floatin', no matter what you call it, planned time spent underwater in my kayak is rewarding. Following Warren Williamson's advice, I fall into the water, let myself sink and come up on the other side and slowly repeat it from side to side.

To improve I practice in all conditions.Of course the objective is to gain skills to use in challenging situations but I also find this activity very relaxing.

Rainy Weekend Fun

"In my opinion, you can never practice the sculling brace enough. What I like to do is to get into a sculling brace position, looking up, hands under the paddle, let yourself sink and come up on the other side, to the sculling brace. Doing this back and forth very slowly is a good workout. It's good for learning orientation when you’re under water, teaches you to relax and be ok with being in the water". Warren Williamson

Taking advantage of another rainy weekend when no one else was on the water, I played and had fun, rolling one day and surfing the next. As Warren says, the sculling brace is helpful in learning underwater orientation and relaxing underwater, both important for the kind of sea kayaking I enjoy.

Paddling out through the clear green water the sky was ominous and the falling rain stung my eyes. This small discomfort was quickly forgotten as each wave lifted the stern of my kayak for another ride.

Happiness is a Stick

Dreamer Matt_Vanstix Aleut paddle
Queensland and my hometown Brisbane, is recovering from the unprecedented weather events of January 2011. Several local beaches and waterways remain closed to swimmers as a precaution. On some of the hottest days of Summer, the usually popular beaches are eerily deserted.

It’s no secret that playing around in my kayak with my stick makes me happy.
Kayaking is a chance for me to be fully present in the moment, not thinking about anything except my body, the paddle, the kayak and the water. Even when I muck it up, it’s still fun. I play to improve my skills and I like that I don’t have to be technically perfect to enjoy myself.

Gnarlydog sculling during a play session
As I play, get wet and focus in the now, I not only come to enjoy the sensation of being underwater in my kayak, I learn how the movements of my body affect the kayak in the water.

Greg Schwarz Scarecrow rolling during a play session
Playing with traditional paddles has fast tracked my learning and increased the FUN factor more than I could have imagined.

Greg's 'Downunder' stroke
Sticks may not be for everyone, but my friends and I enjoy learning the subtleties of using them - and the benefits they bring!

Birthday Rolls #46

Starring: Greg Schwarz, Jim, Gnarlydog, Adventuretess
Guest Appearances: Moira, Bruce

12 months since the tradition of ‘birthday rolls’ began, it was time to do it all again. All rollers chose to use Greenland Paddles, including Jim who was using his homemade GP for the first time.
Birthday presents are not exchanged among group members; the act of getting together in this way is considered gift enough. I was therefore taken by surprise when Greg Schwarz handed me a small red fleece bag. What lay inside left me speechless: Greg had made me a Norsaq, a Greenland harpoon throwing tool similar to a Woomera. My Norsaq is a beautiful work of art meticulously made with the same timber used to make my GP. Greg substituted Ash on the tips and trim where traditionally bone would have been used.

I have no experience rolling with a Norsaq so was appreciative that Greg included lessons as part of the gift.

Entering the water, the effect of the recent devastating floods was apparent by the unusually brown water and our discovery of a freshwater catfish eel flopping around on the tide line. This poor fellow must have been washed out of a nearby freshwater creek.
12 months ago aged 45, I had wondered at my ability to perform as many rolls. Today attempting 46, plus 1 for luck, I had no such concerns. The challenge for me on this birthday lay in doing different types of rolls. The groups abilities are at different levels but throughout the session, butterfly, Greenland, hand, offside, speed, forward ending and other types of rolls were successfully performed.
On top of these, Greg decided to do his as hand rolls, all 50 of them, one after the other!
After completing the required number of rolls, we played.

Gnarlydog perfected his skirt-in-place re-enter and roll while Greg turned to his role as mentor, helping Jim achieve his first offside roll, using his new GP then guiding me in the use of the Norsaq.

I've found practicing and playing in my kayak improves both my skills and confidence and I’m fortunate to have many opportunities throughout the year to celebrate my kayaking friend’s birthdays in this way.

Jim & Tess

How do you celebrate your birthday ?

Under Threatening Skies

While others were fighting for bargains at post-Christmas sales, or staying out of the wet weather on their couches at home, I was itching to get my kayak wet.

The only post-Christmas “sale” I was interested in involved using my Flat Earth kayak “sail”. Unfortunately the forecast was for heavy rain instead of wind, so I left the sail at home, grabbed my GP and Gnarlydog and launched under threatening skies.

In contrast to the sky, the bay was calm and unusually devoid of boats. My body relaxed into the familiar rhythm of the forward stroke; the only sounds the occasional splash of the paddle and the ‘tic tic tic’ of rain hitting the brim of my hat. A feeling of peace enveloped me. It was 6 years to the day since I first took up sea kayaking.

Approaching the reef surrounding of our destination, the water line was clearly higher than usual, with the incoming flow encroaching on the usually dry land. The king tide was flooding the small protected bay with warm, clear water providing perfect conditions to practice sculling and rolling.
Taking advantage of the rare water height, we weaved a path over the submerged beach through mangroves and shrubs, inaccessible at other times. Small sandstone cliffs were reminiscent of the coastline in North Queensland, the pink colours a contrast against the surrounding dark foliage.
This rainy day exploration had left me with the feeling of a remote experience in my own backyard bay.

Teen Greenland Rolling

Mini-Me does rolling
Starring: Greg Schwarz & Mini-Me

Loving this sport as I do, I sometimes wonder how much more I could achieve if I had started sea kayaking earlier in life - what an advantage to soak up kayak skills when you are younger, braver, have more energy and more importantly, youthful flexibility.

I recently had the pleasure to be part of a small group practicing balance and rolls in a variety of sea kayaks where one of the group, was a young girl.
Prior to this, the girl had only paddled a friend’s plastic kayak with a large recreational cockpit and no bulkheads for a half hour during a picnic.

This was her first time paddling a sea kayak. She chose a Greenland paddle and skeg boat (Norkapp LV) and surprised us by listening carefully and applying advice that was offered on the intricacies of forward stroke and body rotation. She spent some time paddling up and down the beach practicing the stroke and in turn, offered critique on some of our forward paddle styles.

Observing others rolling, sculling and balanced bracing, she surprised us again by asking if she could try some of the things we were doing.
Paramount to any beginner’s success is having a kayak that fits and access to skilled mentors and while none of the kayaks were a perfect fit, she was fortunate that Greg Shwarz was among the group. Under Greg’s guidance she began balanced bracing a Tahe Marine Greenland kayak almost immediately!

Only minutes later she grasped the technique of sculling and it was only because she was underdressed and shivering from the cold water that she didn't learn to perfect a roll.
Next time, suitably dressed for immersion, maybe she will surprise us with a hand roll? :-)

Butterflies and Hand Rolls - Australia Day 2010

Starring: Greg and Moira Schwarz, Gnarlydog, Adventuretess

Australia isn’t only about vegemite, koalas, mateship and cockroach races at the Story Bridge Hotel, it’s about living the Aussie dream and ‘having a go’.


After returning a day early from Fraser Island, I decided to spend my bonus day off pursuing my current Aussie dream, to hand roll my kayak.

An impromptu session with rolling mentors Moira and Greg Schwarz was arranged.
Watching Greg and Moira’s effortless balanced braces and Greenland rolls has inspired me to ‘have a go’.

It isn’t always pretty, but I have a lot of fun testing the boundaries of balance in my kayak. Without their guidance, balanced bracing would just be some weird thing that those kayak roll specialists do.
Armed with determination and a neoprene oven mitt, we met Moira and Greg among the patriotic hordes setting up bbq’s and esky’s along the grassy shorefront.
I’ve been attempting hand rolls for a short time and I just couldn’t quite pull it off. Almost reaching the back deck and then failing, my bare handed sweep wasn’t working for me. Warming up with a short paddle and a few rolls, I carefully studied Greg and Moira as they performed hand rolls.
I put the neoprene glove on and listened carefully to Moira’s instructions.

Before I knew it I had rolled and was lying on Sialuk’s back deck looking into the sky.

Success!



Tentatively I tried again, to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. Feeling more confident, I tried it again and sure enough, up I came.
By this time, I was getting excited and wanted to try it one more time before going commando (without the glove). Well, the magic left me and my hand rolling came to an end. Moira comforted me with assurances that this was common when learning to hand roll. It comes. And it goes.
Taking a break we all swapped kayaks and I watched as Moira hand rolled, Greg elbow crook rolled and Damiano butterfly rolled in Sialuk – his first!
Moira paddles an Avocet LV and the cockpit fits me very well. I decided to try the hand roll one more time and surprising myself, I managed to hand roll a further 3 times in the Avocet LV before the magic washed off.
We 4 left the beach satisfied. For a few short hours we’d all ‘had a go’ and ‘lived the dream’. Sharing celebratory ice creams afterwards, I was a very happy kayaker.

Scarborough to Bribie - Keeping the Skin on my Tail

Starring: 8 members of the 'Claytons Group', Greg Schwarz, Gnarlydog, Adventuretess


Gnarlydog using his Flat Earth Kayak Sail and Elver Greenland paddle

The original seat in my Nordkapp LV ‘SIALUK’ has been rubbing the skin off my tail on trips longer than 15km. Very fond of the hull's shape but not of the "furniture", I tried, among other things, heat deforming the seat to change its shape but ultimately the best solution on longer trips was to duct tape the area on my butt that was likely to be rubbed raw.

Gnarlydog made me a new seat in the MEI (Multisport Expeditions International) workshop. After a week playing with kayak rolls, I decided to test the new seat during a 27km social paddle with members of informal kayak group The Southeast Queensland Sea Kayakers or 'Claytons Group'.

11 kayakers launched at Scarborough heading for Bongaree on Bribie Island, Group members quickly settled into their own paddle rhythms, the lack of breeze making the trip humid. Optimists in the group kept sails raised, hopeful to catch any whisper of wind. Unchallenging conditions combined with eager paddling made for a fast arrival at Bongaree.

Reaching the sand beach, some opted for a refreshing swim in the inviting water, while others practiced rolling. I separated from the group here to share lunch with some locals before paddling back to Scarborough later in the afternoon.

Afternoon sail

Sailing back, we noticed smoke flares and activity in the distance. The local Coastguard was undertaking a training activity, using a rescue helicopter to transfer people from water to moving boat and back again. Staying low to water and boat during manoeuvres, the ability of the chopper pilot was impressive. Watching the surface water dispersed by the hovering helicopter, I wondered about the effects the downdraft might have on a kayak....

Landing back at Scarborough with the skin on my tail intact, I was very happy with the new kayak seat, which only need minor mods to be perfect for me.

45 Rolls for my 45th Birthday

Starring: Gnarlydog, Greg Schwarz, Adventuretess


Celebrating my birthday close to Christmas and New Year has always posed challenges as to the best way to celebrate. Most people are partied out after so many ‘festive’ celebrations. I prefer celebrating by spending time with favourite people, outdoors if possible.
During a recent QSKC trip, ideas were tossed around as to the best way to acknowledge my 45th birthday. It's the wrong time of year to undertake a 45km bush walk in Queensland (too hot), perhaps a 45km paddle would do the trick. The suggestion was put forward to try doing 45 kayak rolls using Greenland paddles (GP).
As I only learned to kayak roll with a euro paddle a little over a year ago and could then only do 3 rolls in a row in flat water if I was lucky, I felt this would be a suitable, fun challenge to commemorate my birthday. While I can roll and have spent hours roll training, I have never counted them. I believed the desired outcome was achievable; I just wasn’t sure how difficult it would be.
Vanilla and Blackduck were both out with chest infections, leaving Gnarlydog and Greg Schwarz to bravely join me in the challenge. Plans were made, rules discussed and rewards decided. The 3 challengers would use traditional paddles (Greg his homemade Schwarz GP; Gnarlydog an Elver GP & Adventuretess a borrowed Mitchell GP – thanks Steve).
We 3 are all GP newbies, with different kayaking styles and skills. The smart money was on Greg having the easiest time reaching our target of 45 rolls each. Greg and his wife Moira are skilled rollers who practice regularly and enjoy sharing their knowledge with others. They introduced me to balanced bracing and have taught me new rolls, as well as helping me to improve my existing rolls.
All the visualisation, vitamins and yoga paid off (I’m kidding, we woke up, drove to the beach and launched) as Gnarlydog set the pace by aggressively rolling 10 times in fast succession.
While Gnarly was eager to get his rolls on the tally board, Greg and I were a little slower to begin.

A healthy competition to be the first to reach 45 was soon underway, our beachfront audience of mostly grey nomads watched in alarm before realising we were repeatedly tipping over on purpose.
There was a variety of beautiful rolls performed, but the choppy conditions made photographing our quest difficult.
My rolls were not always ‘pretty’, but I did not fail any until I passed the 50 mark and started playing with my offside and forward sculling rolls – neither of which I have done before!
Gnarlydog was first to reach 45, plus 1 for good luck.
Greg and I quickly followed and as there was still some air left in the tanks, we continued to roll. Around 60 rolls in, Gnarly’s ADD (Action Deficit Disorder) kicked in and he couldn’t resist surfing the small waves pushing us around.
‘Speed rolling’ was something else I hadn’t tried before, so timing each other, we took turns to see how many rolls we could do in 10 seconds. What fun, although I may need to change my name to Dizzytess!
Celebrating later with Greg and his wife Moira over a feed of fresh prawns and ginger beer, the new Gordon Brown DVD played in the background as we discussed the different ways to construct traditional paddles and the merits of using different types of wood. It was the perfect end to my birthday challenge.
Completing the challenge was a huge achievement for me. The improvement in my rolling during the last 12 months affirmed my 2009 decision to dedicate time to roll and play instead of ‘throwing a few rolls in at the end of a trip’, usually tired and with a loaded boat.
I’m now almost more comfortable upside down than right way up in the kayak.
2010 presents more opportunities to continue improving my skills, with a strong focus on GP. I am very impressed with traditional paddles and particularly the lack of stress in my body. I also paddle with an Aleut paddle, which is slightly different to a GP.
I could not think of a better way to celebrate turning 45 – except maybe doing 45 different rolls….