ADVENTURE KAYAK’S GUIDE TO Greenland-Style Kayaking PART II TRADITIONAL TEACHERS SPREADING THE GREENLAND GOSPEL
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he steady growth of Greenland-style paddling is owing in no small part to its inseperable association with one thing: the
roll. Rolling is sea kayaking’s most mysterious and alluring skill, its dark-eyed blonde in a little black dress. Every guy at the bar wants to buy her a drink, every woman wants to know her secret. Few are as skilled with a Greenland blade as Cheri Perry, a dark-
eyed blonde in a little black tulik. Beneath the neoprene, Perry pos- sesses the sort of flexibility and form that gymnasts envy, gracefully performing the full repertoire of traditional Greenland rolls. In 2004, at the Arctic Boat Gathering in Mystic, Connecticut,
Perry turned heads by performing the difficult elbow roll and then, even more impressive, her very first straightjacket roll. Requiring a Houdini-like degree of body and boat control, the straightjack- et roll eludes many of the world’s top Greenland-style paddlers. Someone caught the feat on video and posted it on YouTube, where it quickly went viral—or as viral as is possible for this niche sport. When Perry traveled to Greenland for the National Kayak- ing Championships later that year, local champion and national hero Maligiaq Padilla introduced her as “the girl who can do the straightjacket roll.”
36 ADVENTURE KAYAK | EARLY SUMMER 2012
Competing in Greenland was a big step for Perry, then a 42-year- old single mom and hairdresser who managed her own Connecti- cut salon. “As a hairdresser, you work in a space about this big,” Perry explains, gesturing to the picnic table where we’re seated at the Ontario Greenland Camp. “From the chair to the sink, back to the chair—there’s not a lot of open space.” Greenland was very different. Perry returned from the event with four gold medals, the following year she took home eight. It’s this sense of making the difficult accessible to anyone that
has brought Perry, and traditional paddling, the sort of charismatic popularity that has curious kayakers lining up for Greenland-style clinics and demonstrations. Perry explains: “The Euro sea kayaking progression teaches paddle strokes,
then rescues, then finally, rolling. You’re taught tandem carries and tandem rescues, and told to paddle with others whose skills are as good or better than your own. It creates a dependent paddler. Greenland-style is the exact opposite—you traditionally learn to roll first, and only when you’re competent at this do you learn to go paddling. You carry the lightweight boat by yourself. You are an independent paddler. It’s very freeing.”
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