****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
If ever something needs hands-on instruction and close, objective, observational feedback, it's rolling a kayak. The movements are complex, subtle and counterintuitive, your orientation changes throughout and you're underwater half the time so it's hard for you or even a casual observer to see what you're doing. So I was mightily impressed by this video, which uses detailed explanations and illustrations, including hands-on (simulated) instruction, to promote a single, all-purpose, reliable, adaptable and fairly safe roll technique. Instead of demonstrating numerous variations or supposedly inspirational advanced rolls, which is all pointless distraction, this team teaches the movements, timing and attitude that directly informs beginners. They know their stuff, both how to do it and how to communicate it, and they've honed their craft to concentrate on the essentials. The result is still a lot to absorb, sitting indoors, then put into practice in the water, but given its inherent limitations this video does a fantastic job. Many viewings interspersed with lots of practice still isn't quite like having someone standing beside you showing you on the spot what's right and wrong, leading you along step by step, but it's the next best thing. Pretty soon you'll hear their voices while you're upside down: "shed the resistance", "torso rotation", "elbow forward", "head down", "watch the watch"… and most of all their calm confidence that, strung together and executed reasonably competently, these motions will succeed in righting you with very little effort. They still recommend personal instruction (it's what they do for a living, after all), but this video is a great alternative, and a great commercial for their school.
