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wrote:
Here in Newfoundland Canada most hard core paddlers can roll a boat but
most paddlers are not hard core. I would guess that only 10% of sea
kayakers here have a roll; any roll!!!.

I'm predominantly a white water paddler and my roll used to be pretty
much bombproof, it's getting a bit flakey now though. I was always
taught that, while braces and support were paddling strokes, a roll was
a self rescue. If you had to roll, you'd somehow failed. This was in
the days before playboating and freesstyle.

I could roll my Skerray sea boat quite happily, though what I could not
do was come up from a scull. If I was sculling fro support on my side
(say 75 degrees or so) I had to fall in and roll to come back up.
Not sure if sculling for support is ever done in a sea boat (surf?) so
it's probably an academic point.

Re-entry and roll on the Skerry was easy, I found it easier than
messing around with paddle floats and scrambling back in - big paddler,
ocean cockpit.

Never managed to roll my canoe (yet).