Eskimo Roll

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More often just called a roll, except by non-paddlers who insist on adding "eskimo." This is a self-rescue technique by which a paddler can right a flipped boat (usually a kayak, but also a canoe) without getting out of it.

There are lots of different kinds of rolls. For the beginner, which roll you use is a matter of comfort. For a more experienced paddler, the situation dictates the sort of roll you use. Variations include:

where/how you hold your paddle
which direction you roll the boat (and which side you position your body on)
whether your torso ends up on the front deck of the boat or the back deck

A roll that never fails is referred to as bombproof. A roll that fails might result in a wet exit, which leads to a swim.

Basic Principles

Whatever roll you learn, some of the principles of a roll are common to all techniques.

1) It's all in the hips Beginners will want to force their way up using upper-body strength. That will work sometimes (and tire you out always) but a better paddler will rely on the hip flick. In a properly executed roll, the upper body is used for some resistance, and the hips power the rotation of the boat. The proof of this is that experienced paddlers can often roll without a paddle at all.

2) Keep your head down Beginners will naturally want to get their heads above water as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, bringing your head up first changes the centre of rotation, and makes a roll exponentially more difficult to execute. Imagine a log floating in the water. If it's had all its branches trimmed, the log will rotate quite freely along its long axis. If there are still branches sticking out from the sides of the log, it becomes much harder (and often impossible) to roll. So clearly you want to be like a log with no branches, and that means that your head is the last thing to leave the water.

3) Practice, practice, practice. A solid roll increase your confidence and pleasure in paddling challenging water, but it's not a natural maneouvre. Practicing until it becomes a matter of muscle memory will allow you to execute the move without even knowing what you're doing.

4) Go Both Ways Once you've learned to roll on one side, learn it on the other. On some occasions, you may not be able to roll on your preferred side (such as if your boat has been pushed against a cliff or a rock), and you'll need a backup option.

Types of Roll

There are dozens of different kinds of rolls. Seal-hunting kayakers in Greenland are arguably the source of most of them, having been forced to learn variations to accommodate a harpoon held in one hand, or a seal carcass on the other, all in frigid waters where failing to roll might result in death.

Sweep Roll
Possibly the most common type of roll.
1. Without changing your paddle grip (in other words, hold it as if you were paddling upright), tuck your body as far forward as possible against the front deck.
2. Place the paddle parallel to the side of the boat, stretching forward.
3. Cock your wrists forward, so that the front paddle blade lies flat to the surface of the water.
4. Keeping wrists cocked, sweep the front paddle blade outward to the side, so that your body and the paddle are now sideways, 90 degrees to the boat.
5. Keeping your head down, use a hip flick to rotate the boat along its long axis.
6. When the boat is righted and relatively stable, only then should you bring your head up.

C-to-C roll
This roll takes its name from your body shape. The setup for the roll has your body out to the side of the boat, curved toward the water's surface so that the paddle blade can be at the surface. That means your body is in the shape of a C. At the end of the maneouvre, your body is curved in the opposite direction, making the mirror-image C.

Pawlata roll

Back-deck roll

Hand roll

no-hand roll

tandem roll A tandem roll is executed by two paddlers in a tandem kayak or two-person canoe.