Open Canoe Roll

Having a roll is helpful for hard whitewater play and boosts confidence. Your canoe needs to be well bagged and you need to be locked in with thigh straps or machines. Our club in the 80's used to practice open canoe rolls, both solo and tandem, in the Farmington River in Connecticut.

In 1986, I paddled Section IV of the Chattooga and the Ocoee with the legendary Nolan Whitesell. That's how he often sold his boats: He'd make one for you, let you use it on real rivers, and then hope you'd buy it at the end. (I did.) He finished off our Chattooga run by demonstrating on-side rolls, off-side rolls, cross-rolls, and hand rolls in Lake Tugalo. He would do each roll both left-handed and right-handed because he believed in being completely ambidextrous for all paddling strokes and maneuvers. I believe that, too, but my actuality has never been complete.

This video is a good presentation of on-side and off-side solo canoe rolling in an open canoe:

I'm very proficient at the first half of the roll.

Bags? Your confidence will soar once you do it with an empty canoe. Practice in the pool.

Black_Fly said:

Bags? Your confidence will soar once you do it with an empty canoe. Practice in the pool.

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It is true that an open boat without flotation is easier to roll. It stays very low in the water so there is little mass that has to be rolled up out of the water.

Only problem is you can't do anything with it after you roll it up.

pblanc said:

It is true that an open boat without flotation is easier to roll. It stays very low in the water so there is little mass that has to be rolled up out of the water.

Only problem is you can't do anything with it after you roll it up.

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Right on! A boat full of water is hard to paddle. I used to tell newbies who thought a roll would make them a class IV-V boater that a solid brace was way more important than a roll.