My rolling has never been very good, or rather I should say my confidence in my ability to roll has always been low. Nine times out of ten the roll succeeds, however I’m all ways shocked when I resurface. This has led me to spend more effort in staying upright (not a bad thing) than relying on being able to roll.

No where has this been more apparent than at Hurley. This might seem odd considering the amount of time I spend there, however I’m always nervous about getting on the weir having to continuously remind myself that I can roll and I’m not going to swim.

Anyway, last Wednesday evening I made my way down to Hurley for an after work session on three gates. The queues were long (surprise surprise!) and so I did something I rarely do, entered the wave from the river right.

Normally I avoid this as the swirly’s on the eddy line on this side are fiercer than on the left. After a brief surf I flushed off and went over. Pushed right down the eddy line I managed to plow through all the worst bits getting spun round and round and made to feel quite disoriented.

It didn’t bother me.

I rolled up and apart from feeling a little dizzy I was fine. The strange part is that that fear of going over seems to of vanished. On Sunday I felt no worries at all about what might happen if I capsized and as a consequence my paddling was better for it.