Greenland rolling in Rheezerveen - Palluussineq

Demo: chest sculling - Palluussineq (= Greenlandic for "lying on one's belly").
All pictures in this post by Ido van der Meer.

This Saturday I visited the Greenland Rolling Clinic in Rheezerveen organised by Freek and Peter. It was a pleasure to see so many people having fun learning rolling in the traditional Greenland style. I couldn't resist jumping in the water myself: I joined Peter/Hotwiredbrain 's demo of competion-rolls (it was big fun to do synchro rolling with such a talented roller!) and assisted a little with the instructions.

Tahe Marine Greenland kayaks were used for the rolling clinic. Arend Bloem supplied the clinic with a brandnew copy of the latest version of this kayak: the Touring. I took this unique chance to compare the rolling performance of the Tahe Greenland SC, LC and Touring kayaks. The only difference between the SC and the LC is the size of the cockpit and the type of the seat. The Greenland SC and LC offer a seating position quit similar to a an original Greenland skin-on-frame: a snug fit with the legs stretched flat out. Hard chined, just 50 cm width and a low back-deck make these kayaks easy to roll - I would say they are "out of the box" ready for the Qaannat Kattuffiat - Greenland rolling championships. The cockpit of the LC (large cockpit) has the same size as the 0cean cockpit of the Valley Anas Acuta. The cockpit of the SC (small cockpit) is about 10 cms shorter. Though there is no noticeable difference in rolling performance, I preferred the SC: with a slightly higher seat and the foam Peter had customized his kayak, it just fitted me slightly better. In the LC I sat deeper and a bit more loose with my legs from the deck of kayak, so I had to lift up my legs a bit, which resulted in the inner cockpit-rim pressing in the upper leg. But this is simple to avoid by adding a small block of foam under the deck just in front of the cockpit rim.
The T (touring) version of the Tahe Greenland was a pleasant surprise: Tahe added a bit more volume to the Greenland, made it 3 cms wider and added a large keyhole cockpit to the Greenland to create a more all-round seakayak. Compared to most British style seakayaks it still is a relative narrow, hard chined, low volume kayak. And regarding rolling performance: it's also a perfect rolling kayak. In direct comparison to the Greenland LC and SC it requires a bit more effort to roll the layback-rolls. The difference is very subtle, let's say it requires a bit more "focus" sliding the body on the back deck in the finishing stage of the roll. For forward finishing rolls (like assammik masikkut and norsamik kingukkut) the Touring even has a little advantage compared with the LC and SC: the higher position of the knees makes it easier to recover tucked forward ending with your nose on the front deck.
Overall: the rolling performance of the Greenland T reminded me of my late Anas Acuta ;-( which has a reputation as a good rolling kayak. The performance of the SC and LC is on the next level - it comes close to a dedicated rolling SKOF-kayak.

Thanks Peter and Freek for the perfect organisation of this event! I enjoyed it very much - Very inspirational - It's time I get myself a replacement for the Anas Acuta and to pick up training Greenland rolling again. Next challenge: who of us is the first to perform Tallit Paarlatsillugit Timaannarmik? Peter got close to it yesterday!