open Canoe Technique
ALWAYS READY, WITHOUT A SWITCH
THE (NEW) TANDEM CANOE ROLL
Timing is everything. PHOTOS: VIRGINIA MARSHALL
In an earlier issue of Rapid (Early Summer 2003), Jeffrey Bos taught the tandem canoe roll. Then, it was mostly a party trick, something to play with in the pool but seldom used on the river. I was excited about including it in Rapid so that tandem paddlers would at least give it a try. Because let’s face it, swimming sucks! Although tandem boats haven’t changed all
that much in eight years, attitudes about rolling have—more solo paddlers are rolling than ever before. Tandems aren’t harder to roll they’re just slower. The principals for rolling a tandem are the same: Get the boat up; then get in it. Most confident solo rollers can actually roll a
tandem canoe. So let’s put that person in the stern and focus on the bow paddler.
Really strong rollers can get a small bow per-
son to tuck and just wait to be rolled up—a strat- egy used by many husband and wife teams. Ef- fective maybe, but this isn’t the teamwork that makes tandem paddling so much fun. Here are two ways the bow paddler can help
get himself back in the boat. Both work, I’d ar- gue one is just more contemporary.
2003 The bow paddler switches hands underwater. Count, “One steamboat, two steamboat three steamboat,” then the duo rolls up together on the same side. I don’t like this for two reasons: You risk losing your paddle switching hands underwater, and when you roll up your paddle is on the wrong side. Besides, I’m a canoeist
and only have one good side—I can’t paddle, let alone roll on my left.
2011 Let’s let the strong stern paddler roll the boat up. Meanwhile, the bow paddler sets up for an offside high brace roll or an offside low brace roll. What? Yup, these feel as awkward as they sound. I figured out the motion on my living room floor with a broom for a paddle. Both are quick to set up and offer enough momentary resistance to get your torso back in the boat. With an offside brace roll you don’t waste time changing paddle hands, plus you roll up in an aggressive cross forward position ready to paddle your swamped pig to the nearest eddy. —Scott MacGregor
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