The Eskimo Screw Roll

April-May 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Adam Bolonsky

Editor's Note: While exiting and self-rescue skills are required if one wishes to paddle safely, the Eskimo Roll is a more advanced skill-recommended but not essential. After reading Adam's clear description, however, you may find yourself inspired to give it a try!

 

Figure 1

To some paddlers the Eskimo roll is their own personal kayaking version of the holy grail: a vision and an illusion always just out of reach. Often spoken of, oft-pursued, and sometimes even dreamt about, its value as a sea kayaking move has even been hotly argued. So for those of you still intrigued by this flashy, useful move, here’s a short guide on how to roll.

Set-Up

Grasp your paddle with a standard grip (that is, palm down, knuckles up, thumb under), and extend your stronger arm forward (probably your right) across the deck of your boat. Twist your upper body left and place your paddle to port, convex paddle face down. (Figure 1.)

Lefties substitute right for left and starboard for port throughout.

Drop your chin onto your right shoulder and bend your upper torso forward, fairly low. Now relax. You’re going upside down...

Figure 2

Execution

Capsize starboard or port. Reach up and break the surface of the water with the paddle. Stabilize the paddle level so it hovers above the water horizontal. Roll your right wrist slightly over to ensure that the powerface of your paddle lies horizontal, too.

Now begin a smooth, clockwise-sweeping motion away from the bow of the boat. Use a firm but gentle, slightly downward-pulling motion. (Figure 2.)

As the kayak begins to roll up—and it will before you do—untwist your torso at the trunk and continue the sweep motion. Then abruptly snap your right hip up as if something has just bitten your rear end inside the boat. In other words: sweep, hip-snap, OUCH!

Drive your right knee up into the underside of the right deck.

Completion and Recovery

As you feel your chest and shoulders begin to droop and the boat begin to roll up beneath you, throw your head back. Way back. Look up, in fact, at the clouds. (Figure 3.) Hasten that backward-sweeping motion: faster, firmer, now. Swish the paddle behind you with a flourish.

Congratulations. Your paddling companions are probably shouting. You’ve probably just rolled.

Figure 3

Tips

If your paddle tends to dive during the roll, try turning your right wrist over a little further. The slight change in wrist and blade angles will help your paddle plane over the water's surface without diving down, adding to your roll both leverage and control.

If you become confused once upside-down about the direction of the sweep motion, imagine your task is to put your right hand into your right hip pocket. You'll find this impossible to accomplish should you neglect to sweep your paddle away from the boat in a clockwise motion or if you forget the hip snap.

If the hip snap confuses you, get out of your boat. Then walk over to the edge of the put-in, or the pool, and hip-check a wall or tree or two. Practice hip-checking the car door closed. Then climb back into your cockpit and repeat the motions. A "hip check" is essentially the hip-snap motion.

Finally, in the end, if you have to, try to concentrate on just two crucial elements or motions: that of your right hip "hip-checking" the hull and that of your right knee driving up against the underside of the deck.The hip "bump" adds considerable torque to your roll, the knee-drive also. Together they ensure your upper body emerges from the water pretty much after everything else.

Wrap-Up

Keep in mind that the true mark of a good roll is not speed, nor form, nor "cool". Far more important is whether you can execute one when it's the last thing you want to do-say when you're tired and cold, or when conditions have turned foul and you're far from home. Because paradoxically, the only way to discover whether your roll has any real-life usefulness is to discover whether you can execute it when you're putting it to its real use: that of self-rescue.

The Eskimo roll is more like the local firehouse than the holy grail, after all. Aside from its ability to entice you, what matters about it most is whether you can depend on it when things turn hairball.

A native of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Adam Bolonsky writes regularly about fishing and kayaking for magazines and publications around New England, and paddles in his home waters off Cape Ann whenever he can.