It doesn’t matter if you are trying to perfect an advanced kayak roll like the Rock Roll, or getting your very first Standard Greenland Roll, we all need to be able to finish our layback rolls low. The higher you lift your body, the more power the roll needs to have, and power usually corresponds to speed and muscle strength, which eventually leads to overuse and injury.

if you are like me, looking to improve your rolling, you may find the answer in yoga. Through my yoga practice I have become a more naturally fluid roller. My body moves, stretches and bends in ways that help facilitate safe, powerful and graceful rolling. Yoga is not just a physical practice or set of exercises, it is a holistic practice of mind, body and breath. By spending time now working on your whole being, before the (USA) season starts, I hope that your season of paddling and rolling will be enhanced, and you can progress safely through the process of developing as a roller and paddler.

I tend to spend my winters building and rolling indoors. This year more building than rolling. However I had a brief moment to put together a rolling list to help me remember what to practice. Too many times I have been practicing and completely forgot to perform a particular roll, or remember what what rolls I need to work on. With this list printed our and then laminated and slide under my deck lines I can now practice to my hearts content.

This summer I have been running a series of rolling session at our lake home in Minnesota. If you would like to be added to the email distribution list for the sessions please send me an email at christopher@qajaqrolls.com. Due to the demand I am not publicly announcing each session, instead invites are going out via email. I am still offering private rolling sessions too so feel free to reach out and request those also.

I don’t consider my journey a crisis, but we lack a better way of describing a transformational period during our mid-life, I am, after all, getting dangerously close to the big five oh. …… I have experienced rather a lot of changes in these past twelve months, I am currently a bearded, tattooed, vegetarian, teetotal, Yogi, Greenland paddler who meditates every day, and I love it.

An appreciation of the subtle joys of the traditional paddle Like religion, people newly converted to traditional paddling can be a little over zealous. Proclamations of the Greenland paddle’s superiority over other styles are rampant on the internet, and are...