ori learns to roll

Heres a rolling lesson in pictures, from the first time with Hadas standing besides him , through many days of practice and frustration to a final successful roll. Now begins the task of making the roll elegant, effortless and bombproof. Just when you think that you have mastered the roll you come back to the water and its gone, nowhere in sight. How frustrating, so back you go to the basics, again and again, and then one day its there, easy as pie. And then you start to think about the off side and other variations. So now you know , its a never ending learning experience and a lot of fun.

paddlers of the world unite

As a group I feel we deserve some recognition in the medical field. For example there is Athelete`s foot, Tennis elbow and Swimers ear, all well known afflictions that we suffer from. I also know that many paddlers suffer from a myriad of minor and major ailments, but up to now we have no malady of our own. I appeal to all you out there in the kayak world to submit your suggestions for our own illness, something unique to the kayak community, and maybe we can persuade the powers that be to adopt and recognise our contribution to modern medicine.

new pink hat

Today Hadas showed us her new pink hat, what a beauty. If I wasnt afraid it would be taken the wrong way I would admit that pink is my favourite color. Now that almost everyone can roll we are witnessing a new phenomena, mass rolling, and the old timers are progressing on to hand rolls at a rapid pace.I saw a lot of fishermen out on their kayaks today , in a fishing competition, but the only fish I saw were the flying fish in attack mode.Just another day on the water .
The countdown to our trip to Milos has begun, we leave for a week of kayaking round the island on the 19th of Sept. From what I have heard , it is a great week in a fantastic setting.
Heres the video of the day featuring Hadas in her brand new PINK HAT

so you can teach an old dog new tricks

I`ve been watching the guys and gals learning to roll and taking movies of the process for the last few weeks, it`s an interesting process.Today I saw Ziv do a great roll, keeping his head in the correct position at last, and a few days ago Ruby managed a hand roll with relative ease. All documented on film. Well today it was my turn. With a bit of encouragement and advice from Ruby, I managed to do my first hand roll. What excitement and a great feeling to begin to master something new. I admit that I didn`t think that I could do it as I am not as flexible as the younger paddlers.But there you go then, I was wrong.

dont try this at home

There are no Greenland Style Instructors in Israel, all we know is from what we see on the web and on This Is The Sea from Justine. So when we see Cheri and Freya playing with eskimo rolls we try to copy them , not having a clue as to what they are doing. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes not but we have a lot of fun in the trying.And we get better all the time.See Ruby doing a hand roll for the first time, see Hadas practising and the rest of us just messing about in boats.I agree with Derrick, playing equals learning and we become better kayakers in the process. Actually Derrick will be coming to our symposium so maybe we will have a Greenland style workshop after all.

breakfast of champions

Or how to make SHAKSHUKA... We learn all these different strokes when beginning to kayak, braces, rudders, rolls, skulling , and the list goes on and on. The other day a new student asked me , when learning the basics, "and when do I use this", I answered, first learn the strokes and then you can use them instinctively.So he did. Now I have a short video of Lev,[ not the guy in the story], showing a few braces, rolls and skulling in the small waves on the shore. And then Yuval and Sagi made us a SHAKSHUKA for breakfast. Shakshuka, meaning all shook up, is a very popular Israeli dish made with tomatoes, onions, peppers and eggs. First you fry up a good amount of onions tomatoes and peppers, and whatever else you have handy in a bit of olive oil. When its done you break a few eggs gently into the mixture and let them cook slowly. The dish is usually served in the pan as you can see in the pictures. You need a good bread to mop up the tasty juice too. A glass of Ouzo helps too.

photos from friday

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Friday morning outing

Feel a slight change in the weather, notice a couple of clouds in the sky changing the light.Its the end of August and we still have a long time to go before it gets cold. The water is still about 30C, good for rolling practice, and today the sea is beginning to get a bit bumpy, maybe we will have some nice surfing tomorrow. Meanwhile we can play around and perfect our rolling skills.

fooling around on the water

Some people have a natural ability, they can pick up new stuff in the wink of an eye. Just describe what to do in the vaguest of terms, they say, ok and then go ahead and do it to the chagrin of the rest of us. Me now , it takes a long time and lots of practice before I manage to perfect something new, for example the balance brace continues to evade me and any new roll takes a season or two before any signs of success.Yosele on the other hand falls into the first catagory, and you can see him doing strange stuff with a Euro and a Greenland paddle. Hadas seems to get it quite fast as well.The sea conditions at the moment are conducive to any amount of nonsense, warm and flat and pleasant to be in. So we make hay while the sun shines. I am reminded of our luxurious conditions when I read blogs from the USA and Europe and they are already talking of the end of summer being in sight. What end? we can paddle all year round here, in fact our Symposium takes place in winter, so all you paddlers who have to stay indoors during the winter months are invited to join us.

more rolling around

Heres another one of the optimists getting his roll perfected, and Avital trying out a Greenland paddle

different strokes for different folks

It often happens when out paddling with a group that someone asks about my Greenland paddle, they find it fascinating that can move at all with the stick and sooner or later they ask if they can try it . I always say of course, and hand it over, knowing quite well that the change form Euro paddle to Greenland paddle is a huge leap, and you cannot paddle well in just a few minutes with the stick.I explain the basics and then tell them that they need patience and practice if they want to get proficient. Mostly the results are negative, which is unfortunate because as you get better with the Greenland paddle you can definitely feel the benefits of the low angle paddling on your shoulders and of course the variety of rolls and braces . I would challenge all to give it a real try, not just for a few minutes , but try it out for a few days, commit yourself to learn something new and a whole world will open up for you.
On another track, to quote Silbs, "off with their heads", is a good rule for rolling, almost everyone, new and old lifts their head when rolling, this causes a lot of missed rolls and when they do manage it takes a lot of energy and effort. Lock your eyes on the front paddle blade is the advice given but this seems to be easier said than done. Who knows what the answer is for this problem?
And now for Yosele and friends who are planning an expedition to Patagonia in November. Sounds like a fantastic trip, wish I could go too.

the perfect eskimo roll

What a title, everyone aspires to get that perfect roll , at least in the beginning when it seems so elusive. And then one day it just comes right, without effort. It seems as though you can just roll and roll and roll. And then you call someone to take a photo or a video so you can show your kids or impress your girl, and then look what happens.

yosele can do a balance brace

Today I made a very short video of Yosele doing a balance brace, this is where you float on your back at about 90 degrees to you kayak while still inside. It can be used if you are very tired and need to take a short nap while out at sea . Then you just roll up and carry on on your way.Also if you loose your paddle and flip over, you can swim your kayak to your wayward paddle, retreive it and then roll back up. It takes a bit of practice to get it right.

with or without a kayak in the waves

A wave is a wave is a wave whether you are in a kayak or not amd you can enjoy them either way. Today after playing in our kayaks in the waves we ended the day with some fun in the breakers on the beach.The water is warm, maybe a bit too warm but that makes it pleasant so you can stay in for a long time.