Foolproof your roll with this technique from Shawna Franklin of Body Boat Blade International.

This is the first in a series of monthly technique articles from today's top paddlers. Each technique is peer reviewed by an expert panel, whose comments appear below the article. This means you're getting honest, accurate advice from professionals around the world on what works, and what doesn't. Read Shawna Franklin's description of the Active Leg Drop, then leave your own comments below. —Ed.

Add reliability and ease to your roll by incorporating an active leg drop. The active leg drop better uses your body to roll the kayak and moves you away from relying too heavily on your paddle.

The quick, powerful action of rolling a kayak with the hips is commonly referred to as a hip snap. This action is widely described as getting the upper body near the surface and supported by the water, while righting the boat with a rolling action of the hips. Most people are told to lock their knees under the deck and concentrate on the upwards action of one knee.

Both legs pushing up against the deck creates a resistance to the rolling action. A paddler will often compensate by pulling harder on his paddle. He is essentially trying to lift his body up underneath the still overturned kayak, resulting in a cumbersome or failed roll and additional stress on the upper body.

Avoid these problems with an active leg drop. Start your roll by actively driving your leg closest to the paddle down against the hull of the kayak, transferring contact from the thigh brace to the hull. Roll that hip and sit bone down while lifting with your opposite knee and leg, bringing the kayak underneath your body.

Lowering one leg and lifting the other creates an opposition of forces. The result is the kayak is rolled almost upright before your body is lifted out of the water, which reduces the need for strong pulling on the paddle. As the kayak rolls to an upright position, your already lowered leg and hip create a solid platform and help prevent the kayak from rolling back over.

Watch another roller who is incorporating an active leg drop and you will notice that the boat moves before she starts to move her paddle.

Practice the action with this exercise. Hold onto a fixed object—a pool side or a friend’s bow or hand—and lower yourself into the water by rotating onto your back and bringing your shoulders parallel to the side of your kayak, keeping your arms bent in a strong position. Roll the boat over on top of your body as much as possible while keeping your head on the surface.

Actively drive the knee/leg/hip closest to your hands to the bottom of the kayak while increasing pressure against the thigh brace on the opposite leg. Arc your spine and leave your head on the water. You will feel the kayak roll easily into a more upright position.  This is similar to what Greenland paddlers refer to as a static brace position.

Repeat until you start to feel the coordination of your opposing leg actions, and then incorporate it into your roll.

In addition to rolling your kayak more efficiently, the active leg drop can also be incorporated into edging and bracing to the same advantage.

—Shawna Franklin is the co-founder of Body Boat Blade International, an award winning kayak school located on Orcas Island, WA. A BCU Coach Level 5 aspirant, Shawn was the first woman in North America to achieve the BCU 5 Star Sea award.

Peer Review

Ginni Callahan, BCU level 4 coach / ACA level 5 instructor, Cathlamet, WA / Loreto, Baja, commented:

Shawna’s article is a great isolation and description of an important component to the roll. The connection to using downward pressure to affect edging is key. 

Meaghan Hennessy, Paddle Canada level 2 instructor trainer, Vancouver, BC, commented:

One way to trouble shoot over-aggressive arm reliance while rolling is to focus on the arm that is closest to the stern during your setup… i.e. your left arm if you are setting up for a right side roll. A common bad habit is to punch this arm out in an attempt to force your body up with the paddle. This move hinders rather than helps you roll as it detracts from your hip flick by driving your upper body down rather than your lower body up.

Try holding the paddle shaft with only a finger and your thumb wrapped around it in order to encourage using this arm, and your paddle, as little as possible. You might find that your focus shifts from overpowering your paddle to instead dropping your leg and rolling the boat under you with your lower body.  

Doug Cooper, BCU level 5 coach, Aviemore, Scotland, commented:

It is great to read another coach moving paddlers away from the traditional ‘hip snap/flick’ technique. For a number of years, I have been moving the focus to what happens inside the boat as Shawna clearly does as well.

A mantra I will often get my learners to keep in their head is ‘Boat first, Body second and Head last’ when it comes to the timing of a successful roll. To get the boat starting to roll first using the hip snap/flick can have the opposite effect. Therefore, I would look at starting from the knees, relaxing one and starting to drive with the other, similar to Shawna, thinking of the hips as a relaxed and flexible joint separating upper and lower body.

To help get a feeling of this, the exercise Shawna describes is great. I usually try to ensure the paddler’s body is in a similar position to when they are rolling, again allowing the head to start out of the water. At this stage I often get them to close their eyes as well to get the feel of how effortless they can make it. To progress from this, try capsizing fully and then again righting the kayak holding onto a fixed object but trying to emulate a similar feel of effort as in the previous exercise.

Michael Pardy, Paddle Canada level 3 instructor trainer, Victoria, BC, commented:

Getting video footage at this stage is useful for the paddler to see how much the boat moves into an upright position before the body, with the head coming up last.

So much of effective paddling happens under the skirt. Unfortunately, that’s not what we see. This is especially true for rolling.

Try backward learning to reinforce the leg drop—as you hold onto a solid object, use one knee to actively pull the kayak upside down. Use the other knee to right the kayak. Tape a golf ball or street hockey ball under each knee. When you transfer pressure to the hull, the balls are a good physical reminder to maintain that downward pressure.

As you build confidence and skill, try Shawna’s drills while using a paddle float or a flutter board. This will force you to drive the roll with your legs. If you use your arms, you will sink.

Finally, don’t get discouraged. Take your time and divide your practice into short successful sessions. In the long run, your skills will improve more quickly.

Bonnie Perry, ACA level 4 instructor trainer / BCU level 3 coach, Chicago, IL, commented:

For years, I have been baffled by the term “hip-snap.”

With Shawna’s article in hand, I began to act out her description of the movements to right a capsized kayak on the floor of my living room. What I realized is that her simple steps to roll a boat are, in fact, the same steps, the same body movements, I use to sit up if I have been lying on my side on the ground. I separate my knees, roll from one cheek to the other, twist my upper body back in the direction from whence I came, extend the arm closest to the floor, dip my head and…voila—I am sitting up! The roll demystified.

Great article looking at what is going on with your whole body and how your body interacts with the boat. Too many people focus more on the paddle and too little on core and body movement.

Christopher Lockyer, BCU level 4 coach / Paddle Canada level 3 instructor, Halifax, Nova Scotia, commented:

A side note would be to make sure your boat fits you correctly. Some people might fall out of their kayaks if they use this rolling technique. A modern keyhole cockpit design offers a much better fit than a wider, more open cockpit.

Nigel Foster, BCU level 5 coach, St. Petersburg, FL, commented:

Nice to see Shawna’s emphasis on a loose fit in a sea kayak for letting the kayak do things more easily! A leg in contact with the hull requires the foot brace to be far enough away, which is a key to optimal control for a lot of other sea kayak skills that can become more difficult when the braces are closer.

That said, if you look at many Greenland kayak designs, there’s a wooden bar (the “Masik”) that presses across the thighs so closely it holds both legs flat. And if you look at whitewater kayak designs, often the limited space for the feet forces the knees up and outward, without any possibility of straightening them. So there’s a group of paddlers rolling with both legs straight, and another rolling with both legs bent. Both groups typically roll a lot, and with no real problem. The twisting pressure that attempts to pull the kayak beneath the paddler is what everyone has in common.

In both cases the body sets up underwater for a roll by stretching one side of the body and contracting the other. This is to bring the body and head as close to the water surface as possible before the start of the roll, so no energy is used to drag the body through water once the roll starts. During the roll the stretched side of the body contracts and the “short” side stretches. This movement, transferred to the seat of the kayak—or to the hull and deck, or both—forces the kayak under the paddler. As Shawna points out, the kayak should be more or less upright before the body, and lastly the head, leave the water.

So I welcome Shawna’s instruction as a good way to prevent adverse pressure being applied against the deck by the “offside knee” (left knee when right blade is engaged and vice versa) conceptually, if not always possible literally.  

Let us know whether the Active Leg Drop works for you. What other tricks do you use to ensure a bombproof roll everytime? Leave your comments below.