Arne H

Member

Registered: 18 Dec 2015

Posts: 21

Rolling the Chesapeake

Hi all,

Any experience and feedback on the ease/difficulty of rolling the Chesepeake kayak, anyone? I've got a Ch 16 and the other day tried to roll it. I'm not too experienced a roller, but I have managed quite well before, at least on slow moving water with a white water kayak, and once tried successfully with a (probably less bulky) touring kayak as well a couple of years ago. But when trying the other day on perfectly calm (but cold) water, I did not manage to roll back up in the Chesapeake 16. I'm not sure if it's my lack of practice, or if these kayaks might be a bit more difficult to roll in general?

Any feedback welcome.

Arne

Arne H

Member

Registered: 18 Dec 2015

Posts: 21

Re: Rolling the Chesapeake

Update on rolling the Chesapeake 16: I now managed, and am not sure, why it actually didn't work before.

What I did, in order to overcome my loss of confidence, was to try the roll with my recently acquired paddle float attached on the business end of the paddle, which worked fine. I then deflated the float bit by bit between attempts, and managed at the end to roll it pretty comfortably without the float.

It may have helped that I could do the recent roll exercise in relatively warm water without the watertight jacket on - that may have provided for easier movement, whereas I had the jacket on in colder water back in spring, when I failed on multiple separate attempts.

So: Problem solved!

(For the strong side and in comfortable gear, that is - still need to work on my weak side, and on doing it while wearing thick clothes... and once that is done, will need to try with luggage, as this was all with a light and empty boat...)

Last edited by Arne H (7 Aug 2017 2:04 pm)