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Underwater filming session

This past Wednesday we had a two hour pool session at Olson Middle School in Bloomington, I used it as an opportunity to shoot an hour of underwater footage and then spent the rest of the time practicing offside rolls as well as a few harder forward finishing...

Rollover

A short video Jacquelyn shot of me doing a succession of Standard Greenland Rolls today at the pool. She held the stern still to make the kayak rotate in front of the camera.

Team spirit

As a part of our companies (Marketing Architects) PR drive we are having each business unit come up with their own video, it had to be one minute in duration and shot on an iPhone. Here is our teams contribution, it was inspired by the Australian rock band Inxs video...

Camera Boom

One of the camera angles that has received a lot of positive feedback from fellow kayak rollers is the overhead shot. So far I have been shooting with a standard 48 inch tripod freestanding on the top of a lifeguard platform that stands at the edge of the pool. This...

Rolling in High Fidelity

Today I recorded some more rolling at the Brooklyn Center ISK Pool Session. I have been noticing a loss in quality during my editing workflow so I spent a considerable amount of time this afternoon working our how to sustain the maximum fidelity throughout the editing...

New camera angles

Tried out two new camera angles this weekend, the first was from a tripod mounted on top of a diving board. which gives me as close as I can get to a birds eye view of the roll. I like seeing how far I do or don't reach out to the side, and also find it interesting to...

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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.