During a family gathering at a friend’s lakeside camp last summer, after deciding I could bear life as a landlubber no longer, I shoved off in a borrowed Dagger rec kayak to play around for a few minutes. With no life jacket or skirt available, I restricted myself to shoulder-deep water just offshore. My playing around became a lesson in several things: (1) it is very possible to roll a kayak without wearing a skirt. In fact, the water scooped up by the cockpit as you roll may lower the center of gravity, actually making it easier to roll; (2) Bulkheads were invented for a reason (this model, like many rec kayaks, did not have any bulkheads); (3) If at first you succeed, quit!
The impromptu video of the moment was posted on Youtube and then re-edited by DeepSixDave and posted as an informational video on the importance of bulkheads. Dave’s other videos are here. His blog is here.
DeepSixDave’s re-edited version of my video is below: