Learn to Roll a Kayak

Kayak Rolling in Belize

Learn how to roll a kayak while on our private island

Our island is the perfect place to learn the kayak eskimo roll. In addition to all of the other sports we offer, our staff can teach you to roll easily with the perfect conditions we have on the island.

What better place to learn how to roll in a kayak than where the water is 80 degrees? In Belize kayaking is a way of life.

Kayak Rolling is Part of the Package

Kayak rolling lessons at our island is not available without purchasing one of our adventure vacations. Our island is located far out to sea, which is one of the reasons it is such a fabulous place; we experience none of the crowding found in other parts of Belize. There is no way to visit our island only for the day, a 5-night package (3 nights on the island) is our minimum as our private boat charter only goes to and from the island two days a week. Packages include hotels and meals in Belize City before and after the trip, transport to and from the island, accommodations and meals on the island, soda and beer on the island, and windsurf and other sports gear and instruction. We specialize in Belize multisport trips; we aren’t just a kayak resort! For a complete summary of all the sea sports we offer, visit our adventure sports page.

Each sport has a mandatory orientation session where we introduce our gear to you. Once you have had the orientation session, you are free to use the gear anytime you like, as long as you have a buddy. The buddy system is different for each sport, and that’s explained during the orientation. For example, a buddy while kayaking is someone kayaking with you, but a buddy while windsurfing is a person on shore paying attention to your location and notifying us if you need assistance. Once you have had a rolling lesson, you can practice any time with or without a buddy because you are just feet from our shore. During scheduled activities, guides are on hand monitoring your progress and a buddy may not be necessary, since the guide is effectively your buddy.

Kayak Rolling Lessons in Belize

Step By Step

We teach using river kayaks rather than the sea kayaks we use daily for our Belize snorkeling tours. River kayaks are smaller boat, and therefore much easier to bring up when you are learning. We have several river kayaks for different size people, and spray skirts to fit all sizes too. We also use river kayak paddles rather than sea kayak paddles.

We teach the Screw Roll, which is the most commonly used roll of all because it is reliable, easy to learn, and works in most circumstances. Most paddlers use a Screw Roll or some variant of it as their standard survival roll.

Here our company president, Cully Erdman, is helping his student with the sweep, the second step of learning to roll. In addition to 80 degree water, we teach rolling while you wear your snorkel mask. Then you can see your paddle position, and no more water up in your nose! Easy!

After the sweep, you do the final step, the hip snap. Here Cully helps bring the boat up. Once you feel the roll in this way, it’s easy to practice and continue to improve. In no time at all you can roll without any assistance!

He’s up!

Once you master your roll here in the calm waters of our lagoon, you can take the boats out into our Belize surf spot, right off our island. We have the only safely surfable surf in Belize. This is the perfect place to practice your kayak combat roll!