Learning to Roll

Rolling a kayak has to be one of those bucket list things if you are an outdoor person, or maybe I just think that way since I’ve wanted to learn since I was a little kid.  I do blame it on my parents, of course.  If it would not have been for those Fisher Price kayaks I had as bath toy things might have been different, ok maybe not.  Getting to a point where I can roll has been an 8 year ordeal, with set backs do to not being able to get out in my boat very often do to, kids, Afghanistan, work, kids, you know life.

In 2003 I had finally saved the money to buy the kayak I fell in love with after my first test paddle of one belonging to a WildernessSystems rep, the Arctic Hawk.  This is no ordinary boat and I didn’t know the path it would lead me.  The lines of this Greenland kayak appealed to me, I could see myself paddling through ice fields on wilderness adventures in this ancient design.  The first summer I did learn my wet exit and self rescue but I wanted more, I wanted to roll the thing.  I had a former co-worker that agreed to teach me, bad idea.  His roll wasn’t bomb proof so trouble shooting mechanics he just wasn’t very good at.  He was also a white water paddler, and was trying to teach me a C to C roll, which made since I had a Euro paddle at the time.  After a summer of trying I wasn’t even close but really good at wet exits and self rescue.  Over the course of the next year I paddled every week that the water wasn’t frozen, I was planning on getting it down the next summer.  Well by the end of the next summer my wife and I had our first child and I was in Afghanistan for a year.  While I was gone I read a lot of books, mostly mountaineering and books about Greenland kayaks.  In my reading about kayak history I ran across the Greenland paddle and found videos of Greenland rolls on the internet.

When I got home life still got in the way.  For the next few years my wife and I only got to paddle a few times a year and mostly when we were gone on mommy/daddy get away weekends.  When we got out we wanted to paddle the time just never seemed right for us to spend the day in shallow water with me trying to roll.

This summer things changed, we bought my daughter her kayak.  Now we had to spend a day in shallow water get her accustomed to her boat.  Leading up to her trip I spent time studying Greenland rolls on Qajaq USA’s website and YouTube.  I had made the switch a Greenland paddle a few years earlier so the C to C roll was out and layback or Greenland roll was in.  While she played in the water my wife spotted me and I worked on my roll.  I only hit her with my paddle a few times before I started to figure out the mechanics and moved to deeper water.  Then all of a sudden it clicked and I started popping up like a cork.  After about 15-20 rolls I was ready to throw up from the spinning so I stopped and we did other things.  About three weeks later I went out for the day by myself and tried to roll again.  Not so good.  Two wet exits later I figured out what I was doing wrong and popped right up.  Now when I go out I try to throw a roll in just to make sure I don’t forget.  I am only able to roll up on one side now and the water is getting colder so expanding to the opposite side and more difficult Greenland rolls will have to wait until next summer.  I am now looking for a hood to wear so I can roll all winter, we’ll see how it goes.

Review of DiCAPac WP-S10

I have been looking for a way to carry my camera on the deck of my kayak that won’t cost me thousands of dollars for awhile now.  I thought the DiCAPac WP-S10 waterproof camera bag would be my salvation.  It has worked well for a bag that cost under $100 but getting there was a less than a confidence boosting experience.

I like to take photos and lots of them, I also enjoy kayaking, but getting the two together can be very costly.  I tried using a waterproof pouch from SeaLine for my phone, thinking I would use the camera on it.  The pouch worked great, the problem is the phone, and no matter what you do you are still using a very small sensor and getting only jpeg images.  Not the type of photography I enjoy.  A dive housing is another option, if you’re made out of money.  I don’t need to be able to take my camera to 100ft below the water and I don’t have the three grand it cost to buy one either.  I only want to be able to take photos in shallow water and it stay dry while I'm paddling.  The DiCAPac seemed like a great option, it is $85 from B & H Photo and guarantied to 16 ft .

This summer we bought my daughter a kayak for her birthday and we took her on a trip for her to try it out.  This isn’t the wilderness adventure of a lifetime but it was my daughter’s first trip so it was one that will never happen again and I wanted lots of photos.  My kids surprised me by getting me a DiCAPac for my birthday and giving it to me a little early, like the day before we left on my daughter’s trip.  After opening it I did read the instructions (that usually doesn’t happen) and tested it as per the instructions before putting my camera in it.  To my surprise it failed!  One of the welded seams was not welded properly and water poured in.  The good people at B & H Photo took care of me and replaced it but there was no way I was going to have it for my trip.  There is the major issue I have with this camera bag; I didn’t get a dime for being their quality control.  If you make a product that is going to protect thousands of dollars of equipment from water test it before putting your name on it.  It would be well worth paying $100 to $120 if I knew it had been factory tested before I bought it.

The second bag I got passed its test fine and a field test where I did two wet exits/self rescues and 15-20 rolls in my kayak.  My camera stayed perfectly dry which I am happy with.  I did install Velcro into the inside of the barrel then put the other side of the Velcro on my lens hood, putting the hood on backwards while in the bag.  This keeps the outer lens cover close to my lens for sharper images.  You must have an internally focusing lens for this to work.  I didn’t come up with this idea but read it on the reviews of the bag on B & H Photo’s web site.  I use my D300 with a battery grip in the bag and it is a tight fit.  I must take the lens off and put it on the camera through the lens barrel of the bag to get it on.  Thank god I have small hands.  I don’t find this a problem since I want the thing to fit tight.  If it just dropped in manipulating the camera would be impossible.  The bag did come with three micro-cell foam spacers to shim up your camera but I don’t need them for my setup.

As for manipulating the camera you must think out your settings before hand.  The controls are not easily accessible through the built in finger pockets so some ‘fore thought is required.  I put my camera on aperture priority and all is good.  The quality of the shots through the outer lens cover, a hard plastic, was very good.  They are not as good as through a dive housing, of course, but they meet my expectations and I think I will get outstanding adventure photos from it.  I also put a couple of silica packs in the bag to keep any moisture down and I carry a small piece of Pack Towel to wipe off the lens before shooting.  One thing I am working on is a bungee or retractable leash to attach it to my kayak.  I have been using the neck strap that comes with it but it is a pain as it is always in the way.

All in all I do think this is a good cost effective way to keep your camera dry while in the water, just test it first.  As with any product it works much better when you know its limitation and you don’t expect it to perform beyond what it is designed to do.  I will always test the bag before using it, but other than my bad experience with the first bag I am happy with the product, I wish I could be excited about it but I’m not.