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North Shore Hiking – Day 4

We woke up, it wasn't raining.We got up, it started raining, we packed the car up, it was still raining. We drove south, it kept raining. We made one mad dash to look at the Temperance River water falls, getting soaked in the process but enjoying them anyway.Then we...

North Shore Hiking – Day 3

This morning we drove south and worked our way back along the coast. Our first port of call was Palisade Head - recommended to us by Bob Simon from my work. Given that we have driven this section of the coast a gazillion times it is amazing how many great places we...

North Shore Hiking – Day 2

For the past 6 years we have hiked the hills of the Cascade River Park, always visiting the Nutty Brown water "Root Beer" falls. The water was running well, both down the rivers course as well as downwards out of the sky.This was a day of low cloud and lots of rain....

North Shore Hiking – Day 1

Every trip up the North Shore usually starts for us at Gooseberry Falls, being so close to the road, and located at the southern end of the great water fall section of the coastline we always try and stop there first but this trip we decided to make an early stop in...

Apostle Islands Trip, Day 4+5

The forecast for Sunday called for the wind shifting more eastwards and dropping to ten to fifteen miles per hour, the wave heights were forecast to be in the five foot range. Our observations on Saturday showed that the entire trip to York via Raspberry would be...

Apostle Islands Trip, day 3

We knew from the NOAA forecast on our marine radios that this was going to be a wind day, sustained twenty five miles an hour winds with gusts upwards of thirty five out of the north east, pushing waves up to 9 feet. The forecast was accurate. Our camp on the south...

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Qajaq Rolls is dedicated to passing on the traditional art of Greenland kayaking. Greenland kayak rolling can be a relaxing, yoga-like exercise. Rolling is also a tremendously valuable self-rescue technique, and should be the go-to recovery for any serious kayaker. Greenland kayak rolls are steeped in the history of the Inuit people, whose very survival depended upon their ability to roll up and recover while hunting. But Greenland kayaking encompasses much more than just rolling, qajaq building, paddle carving, throwing the harpoon and rope gymnastics are just some of the many skills that make up this ancient subsistence culture. If you are interested in learning more about all aspects of Greenland kayaking consider supporting Qajaq USA and Qaannat Katuffiat:

Qajaq USA is a nonprofit membership organization that is officially recognized by Qaannat Kattuffiat (The Greenland Kayaking Association). Qajaq USA is committed to supporting Qaannat Kattuffiat and their efforts to preserve, study and promote the traditions and techniques of Greenland kayaking while seeking to further the appreciation and development of Greenland-style kayaking in the United States.
Please consider joining Qajaq USA and supporting the organizations efforts.

If you are looking to prepare yourself your equipment and then learn your first roll please follow this link to a series of articles put together to help people get started: Getting your first roll. Nothing beats in person training, especially one-on-one training. If you are looking for mentoring check out the Qajaq USA Events where you can become immersed in the culture of traditional paddling.

Free Guidebook and DVD

Rolling with Sticks® started as a project to document the progress I was making as I learned the different Greenland style kayak rolls. This work evolved into the water proof guidebook and DVD. The project has paid for the costs of production so I decided to make them freely available for download in English, español – Spanish and 中文 – Chinese. Please download and share them with your paddling friends, and help to promote the art of Greenland rolling.