A typical question:
Would you be kind enough to share your thoughts on the Sweep vs. the C to C roll? I’ve open boated in the Northeast for a decade, but have moved to Colorado and have decided to learn to kayak. I learned to roll an open boat, but I tend to leave my boat ASAP and swim for shore! My husband is a certified ACA kayak instructor, and feels pretty strongly that the C to C roll is better than the sweep roll since it does not expose the face to the rocks, and may decrease risk of a shoulder dislocation. Although the sweep roll is popular here, and people think it is easier to learn, I’m trying to learn the C to C, but haven’t had much luck yet. In your opinion, is the sweep roll easier, but riskier? Is it worth the extra trouble to learn the C to C? Thanks very much in advance for sharing your time and expertise.
One vocabulary problem is that there are two types of sweep rolls… the “back deck sweep roll”, which some argue does expose face and shoulder, and the “low resistance twisting sweep roll” which our Kayak Roll video teaches. It is interesting to study our Kayak Roll video to see if it exposes face or shoulder more than C to C rolls (which our Kayaker’s Edge video teaches along with the sweep).
The bottom line is that bad form rolls of any style leave your face and shoulder exposed, and that the good form rolls can keep a person protected. SO I wouldn’t label either as riskier if done properly.
Wider, planning hull boats perhaps tend people towards sweep rolls more now than in the past. Even people who learn a c to c tend to evolve to some sort of a mixed roll. Arguably, C to C is best suited for flexible, long-limbed people, in narrower boats, in a cookbook- shorter time frame class situation. The sweep is arguably best suited for inflexible, short torso and limb people, in wider boats.
In my ACA courses, an instructor candidate learns both types of rolls, for commercial necessity if nothing else. Most schools stick fairly dogmatically to one or the other to reduce confusion.
In my experience, people tend to “diss” the roll or technique they are unfamiliar with. Even at Olympic level paddling, the best are those who learn all of the techniques, and apply the ideal technique to the situation.
That is probably more than you needed to know. Id leave the tiebreaker as the roll you have best access to instruction for.