5 Storm Roll

I love this roll!

When I learned the Storm Roll I focused on moving my head from one gunwale to the other and pushing the paddle with my aft hand. In the beginning i found the forward crunching position a bit strange, but now I love getting low. 

When I started to learn this roll I was stiff and couldn't stay low over the foredeck. The Storm roll still worked but I had to be very aware of the blade angle, to get lift to be able to recover. I also had a hard time not to engage both legs. Pulling my torso down with both legs helps to get closer to the foredeck but it doesn't turn the kayak... I experimented with taking my non-water leg off the footpegs and that made me more aware of the problem but it's still hard to get the rotation of the kayak right. Land training helps, to exercise the forward crunch at recovery. I raise my water leg and try to get my nose to that knee. To get the paddle to a climbing angle I change my grip. Instead of the standard grip used while paddling I turn the paddle so I hold it horisontally. 

To practise with an extended paddle didn't help me very much as the back of the paddle slips off the kayak. To get that feeling right I did a lot of Continous storm rolls. This helped a lot! As there are fewer things to consider in the roll I could focus on getting my nose to my knee. As I learned the Storm roll it became clear that I need to have my hands way in front of me. This helped me to get lower over the foredeck. So now I focus on getting the "back hand" pushing forward instead of pulling with my sweephand. 

In the summer of 2022 I fulfilled my dream in line of applied rolling. I faced a wave of about 2-3 meters about to break on top of me. It's ok, I put myself in that position so I was prepared. I rolled over before the wave hit and got the force of water on the bottom of my kayak, made a storm roll and paddled to meet the next wave. Nothing dramatic as all went smooth and I was thrilled to carry it out. 

If I am about to get knocked over at sea and have a bit of time to prepare I almost always go for the storm roll, fun, fast and reliable. 

Judges note:
The wrists shall be over the paddle, palms down. The force face on the paddle cannot be changed.