Appendix 



The Kayak Roll 



]ohn D. Heath 



T 



J.HE 



.HE MOST EXTRAORDINARY feat of kayak handling 

 is the ability to right the craft after a capsize. This 

 maneuver, called "rolling," is usually practiced by 

 capsizing on one side and recovering on the other. 

 Under emergency conditions, a kayaker will recover 

 on whichever side is more convenient. When rolling, 

 a kayaker wears a waterproof jacket having long 

 sleeves and a hood. The waist, face, and wrist 

 openings are fitted with drawstrings, so that when 

 the waist opening is fitted over the cockpit rim, the 

 kayak and kayaker become a waterproof unit. 

 Thus equipped, the kayak is the most seaworthy- 

 craft of its size, this quality being limited only by the 

 skill and stamina of the kayaker. 



The art of kayak rolling was highly developed in 

 Alaska and Greenland. Eskimos in both of these 

 regions depended upon seal hunting by kayak as a 

 major part of their economy, hence the ability to 

 roll was an important means of survival. Very little 

 detailed information exists regarding Alaskan kay- 

 akers, but the Greenlanders have been the object of 

 intensive study by ethnographers and explorers. 

 The earliest detailed record of rolling was that of 

 David Crantz, a European missionary, who in 1767 

 enumerated ten methods of rolling in his History of 

 Greenland.* His description follows. 



I. The Greenlander lays himself first on one side, then 

 on the other, with his body flat upon the water, (to imitate 

 the case of one who is nearly, but not quite overset) and 

 keeps the ballance with his pautik or oar, so that he raises 

 himself again. 



Q. He overturns himself quite, so that his head hangs 

 perpendicular underwater; in this dreadful posture he 

 gives himself a swing with a stroke of his paddle, and raises 

 himself aloft again on which side he will. 

 The.se are the most common cases of misfortune, which 



■ See bibliography. 



frequently occur in storms and high waves; but they still 

 suppose that the Greenlander retains the advantage of 

 his paulik in his hand, and is disentangled from the seal- 

 leather strap. But it may easily happen in the seal-fishery, 

 that the man becomes entangled with the string, so that he 

 either cannot rightly use the paulik, or that he loses it 

 entirely. Therefore they must be prepared for this 

 casualty. With this view 



3. They run one end of the pautik under one of the cross- 

 strings of the kajak, (to imitate its being entangled) over- 

 set, and scrabble up again by means of the artful motion 

 of the other end of the pautik. 



4. They hold one end of it in their mouth, and yet move 

 the other end with their hand, so as to rear themselves 

 upright again. 



5. They lay the pautik behind their neck, and hold it there 

 with both hands, or, 



6. Hold it fast behind their back; so overturn, and by 

 stirring it with both their hands behind them, without 

 bringing it before, rise and recover. 



7. They lay it across one shoulder, take hold of it with 

 one hand before, and the other behind their back, and 

 thus emerge from the deep. 



These exercises are of service in cases where the pautik is 

 entangled with the string; but because they may also 

 quite lose it, in which the greatest danger lies, therefore, 



8. Another exercise is, to run ihe pautik through the water 

 under the kajak, hold it fast on both sides with their face 

 lying on the kajak, in this position overturn, and rise again 

 by moving the oar secundum artem on the top of the water 

 from beneath. This is of service when they lose the oar 

 during the oversetting, and yet see it swimming over them, 

 to learn to manage it with both hands from below. 



9. They let the oar go, turn themselves head down, reach 

 their hand after it, and from the surface pull it down to 

 them, and so rebound up. 



10. But if they can't possibly reach it, they take either 

 the hand-board off from the harpoon, or a knife, and try 

 by the force of these, or even splashing the water with the 

 palm of their hand, to swing themselves above water; 

 but this seldom succeeds. 



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