Dubside is known internationally as an authority on Greenland rolling and rope gymnastics. He has appeared in Justine Curgenven’s “This is the Sea Four”, Bryan Smith’s “Pacific Horizons”, and magazine articles in “Sea Kayaker”, “Canoe and Kayak”, “Paddler”, and “Adventure Kayak”. He has his own series of instructional DVD’s. Dubside does presentations, demonstrations, and instructional classes for symposiums, clubs, and outfitters throughout North America and Europe. He is also an enthusiastic advocate of using folding kayaks to go kayaking via public transportation, which he calls “commando kayaking”. Watching, listening to, and learning from Dubside will get you excited about kayaking in general and using Greenland style paddles in particular.

https://www.qajaqpnw.org/mentors/

Vancouver Island is the new hotbed for Greenland-style kayaking

• PAUL RUDANJun. 7, 2012 1:00 p.m.SPORTS

1. He invented Commando Kayaking. “I didn’t own a car, so I came up with the idea of using public transit to go paddling. It only works with a folding kayak. I had all the bus stops figured out and could put my kayak together in less than 15 minutes. People seem to find the Commando Kayaking thing interesting but I still haven’t found anyone else who’s full-fledged into it.”

2. He’s all about the working class. “It’s too bad kayaking is a middle- and upper- class sport. My pitch on the commando thing is that the initial expense of the kayak is high, but you’re better off with a kayak than with a car.”

3. Pro paddling ain’t easy. “People say they admire what I’m doing, but the truth is it doesn’t pay very much. I float around because I can’t afford a house with a garage and a yard.”

4. He avoids the Euro vs. Greenland debate—or tries to. “I don’t want to get into it. But it’s a peculiar history of how sea kayaking got stuck on the Euro paddle. The Euro paddle works fine, and you can certainly function that way, but the traditional paddle was developed over 1,000 years ago to be the ideal paddle for sea kayaking.”

5. There’s no Berlitz for Greenlandic. “I’m studying it because there’s a real need for a traditional kayaker in the U.S. who is fluent in Greenlandic. I’d like to be able to hold kid-level conversations when I go to Greenland next summer.”

This story first appeared in the March 2009 issue of Canoe & Kayak magazine.

https://www.mensjournal.com/adventure/ck-hero-dubside/

If you are at all into traditional rolling you are probably a member of QAJAQ and know who Dubside is and what he does. If not, you may not know this interesting one-name fellow who is the founder of guerrilla kayaking. If he passed you on the street, you would note a somewhat short fellow, dressed all in black (including a head scarf) with a scruffy beard. He will almost always be wheeling his "luggage" along with him. Actually, that's his folding kayak. Dubside doesn't have a car but, rather, takes his boat on the local bus to some launch site where he assembles his kayak and does his thing; and his thing is something to behold.

Don't let his appearance fool you. He is a soft spoken man with a gentle handshake, and he is strong as a bull. If you are not familiar with Greenland rope exercises you may never have seen a man lift his weight off the ground back and forth over the ropes...with one finger. Not only can Dubside do that, but he has won the Greenland ropes championship (in Greenland, of course). But his true forte' (for us admirers) is his rolling abilities.

Dubside, as he points out in his DVD (Greenland Rolling with Dubside...Volume One available at www.dubside.net) practices yoga to get the flexibility that has allowed him to wow us time and time again, as he did at Canoecopia this past weekend. (He told us that Vol. 2 will be out soon).

In a small pool, he gave a demo of amazing control including rolling without putting out a hand held candle (he also did it with a brick in the other hand). Personal, I loved the way the non traditionalists bought his explanation of the air scull. In that maneuver the paddle sticks straight up out of the water and sculls only in air as Dubside essentially does a roll using the torque of his lower body. Before doing it, however, he took time to tell us how the paddle used the air the same way it does when in the water. Sure.

If you see that name again (it's Dubside), and he's doing a demo, don't miss it. The 100 of us lucky enough to get into the pool venue were, as always, treated to a sight of incredible skill and good humor.

Paddle safe...
DS

http://silbs.blogspot.com/2008/03/dubside-if-you-are-at-all-into.html

One of the Canoecopia events that GalwayGuy, RonO, and I were anticipating was Dubside's first trip to Wisconsin. We all paddle mainly with Greenland sticks and it seemed like whenever we stopped going forward this summer we were upside down. I invested in Dubside's Greenland rolling video and we were anxious to see the man in person. On Saturday we almost didn't make it. The line snaked out the door of the pool and down the hallway and being early for events is not something I'm famous for. Fortunately we snuck in by the skin of our teeth and were able to watch the demo along with a capacity crowd.

Dubside is a smaller guy than I'd envisioned, probably 5'8" or so. He is very limber and claims that if you could improve your paddling with one word, that word would be yoga. Flexibility seems to be the key to successful rolling. He never came close to missing a roll in his demo and this included rolling with a brick in each hand and also passing a lit candle over the hull of his boat while inverted and then hand rolling back up, candle still lit. I've always thought that a good rolling boat would help me and to a certain extent I think it would. The VOR's Avocet seems to come around effortlessly compared to my Aquanaut HV, which I affectionately refer to as the ore freighter. Watching Dubside's video however, makes it apparent that technique and flexibility are the key. When he straps himself into a large unwieldy sit on top and rolls the damn thing first try the point is driven home.

After watching his demo I also checked out his boat very carefully. He paddles a Feathercraft Wisper with a very low stern deck and thigh braces. Viewing abovementioned video a few months caused me to call Feathercraft and spring for bracing bars and a rolling rib. I have yet to try them, given my well known aversion to immersing me or my gear in chlorine. I emailed Reed Chillcheater right after the lakes froze, inquiring about the effects of chlorine on my beloved tuliq. Jo Reed responded and told me that repeated pool usage would cut the effective life in half. After that tidbit said tuliq or Feathercraft Big Kahuna will never see chlorine again! I gave Dubside a hand hauling his boat into a room set aside for that purpose after the demo. I asked him how he kept the foot pegs on his boat from 'drooping'. He explained that I needed to drill a hole in the pegs and run a line up to the gunwhales of the boat. Now why the hell didn't I think of that a couple years ago instead of attempting to contort my big toe under the offending peg to flip it back up? He also showed me the new rig in the Wisper, which is a flexible bar that you put your feet on. When I asked him about the visible protrusion in the bottom of his boat was when he rolled he told us, "My feet". Now thats solid bracing. I also noticed that he had his sponsons inflated all the way. When Bonnie (our favorite river rat) asked about rolling a Khats (actually not rolling it) I suggested she cheat and deflate the sponsons. She did so and said it made rolling much easier and planned on slowly inflating them as she figured the boat out. The Feathercraft are rock solid with the sponsons inflated, as TheMayor discovered when we were rounding Hat Point near Grand Portage on Lake Superior in some nasty clapotis. I can't wait to get my Kahuna retrofitted and into the soon to be icy albeit liquid waters of one of our local inland lakes.

It was a great demo and especially pertinent to those of us who are struggling with the diabolical norsaq stick and various butterfly and shotgun rolls. As we watched Dubside go through his rolling repitoire Silbs and I exchanged comments like "thats just wrong!" and "yeah, SO wrong!" as we felt both admiration and envy for what this guy has accomplished. And GalwayGuy was more than happy to get a photo op with our diminutive fellow Greenland fan from Seattle.

http://gitcheegumeeguy.blogspot.com/2008/03/dubside-in-madison.html

Going Commando: Kayaking’s Man In Black

We began our trip as Dubside invariably does: at the bus stop.
I followed as he dragged the black bag containing his folding kayak and paddling gear on its wheeled frame past the children’s playground to a fence overlooking Puget Sound. There we paused while he pulled out a coloured map.

“Here’s this put-in.” His finger identified our location. “At the bottom of this hill, there should be a footbridge.” Moving his finger to indicate another spot on the map where the road curved close to the water. “I thought this place might be good too but when I checked it out, there’s no way to get across the rail tracks. You have to think of that sort of thing when you choose put-ins. Bus routes….” He held up his timetable, and a map. “You don’t want to cross private land either—it would give kayakers a bad name—but there are often little public access places to the beach if you look for them.”

We followed the fence to a corner where wooded land dropped steeply to a creek, and then as we backtracked we ran into a dog walker who pointed us in a different direction, back to the road to cross the creek. There in the bushes we found the top of several steep flights of steps.

The thud of descending wheels gave way to their steady rumble as we crossed the caged walkway high above the rail tracks and rolling stock. As we spiraled down more steep steps toward the beach I reflected how awkward a carry this would be with a rigid kayak, even with two people, yet how comfortably Dubside dealt with it.

What is Dubside?

Dubside’s lifestyle package began in Philadelphia. Into the reggae scene, which incidentally inspired his famed dreadlocks, he worked as a sound engineer for bands. Living inexpensively in a single room in a house with a shared bathroom, no outside yard space, no car, no vices, he found he needed to work no more than two or three days a week to cover his expenses. Valuing time over money, for most of each week he was free. In 1998 he discovered kayaking.

Canoeing as a kid introduced him to access to wildlife spots and special moments even in the middle of the city. It offered a different, magical perspective. But to take up kayaking now Dubside faced a radical change to his lifestyle. If he were to buy a kayak, a car to carry it with all its running expenses, and find a place to store his kayak, that could require a full-time job which would leave him little time to paddle. Then he ran into Ralph Diaz at the New York Kayak Company, a lifetime advocate of folding kayaks. Dubside was inspired to mail-order one, sight unseen.

Reaching the beach, Dubside looked around for a place to assemble his kayak. “I try to find grass so I don’t get sand and stones inside the skin.” From his black package he unfolded a 16-foot-long black rubberized kayak skin and a pile of aluminum tubes and plastic frames. “When I got my first kayak it took me more than an hour to assemble it. Now it takes fifteen minutes.” My own first attempt to assemble a Feathercraft, out in the Queen Charlotte Islands, had been a puzzling experience. Setting out then on a multi-day camping trip rather than Dubside’s more usual day or night trip, I never did trim my time to less than an hour.

As Dubside inserted sections of frame and his kayak began to take shape, he continued, “Then there’s the safety aspect. I can paddle during the week when most people are at work, so I mostly went solo. My first kayak was so wide and stable most people said it wouldn’t capsize, but then I got a nar- rower one and I wanted to learn how to roll, for safety, especially as I often paddled in winter. Sometimes there was ice on the water. At the pool sessions the other paddlers were Greenland-style enthusiasts, so they taught me to use their paddles, and I got into the whole Greenland stuff, with its emphasis on a wide range of different rolls. The ropes tricks? That came as part of the same pack- age. Helps to keep you flexible and fit too!”

Too modest to volunteer his success in competition, Dubside neglected to add that he is regarded as one of the world’s most highly skilled performers of both Greenland rolls and of Greenland rope gymnastics. All this in so very few years, he says, because his lifestyle allows him so much time on the water.

Dubside on Accessorizing

Dubside now peeled off the black boiler suit he’d worn on the bus to reveal a black drysuit underneath. He struggled into his neoprene tuilik. Sealed around his face so tightly, this combination of spray deck and anorak almost completely excludes water when he rolls.

He clipped his pump to his deck and a VHF radio to each shoulder. He laughedas he explained how he used to give talks about radios. He bought several for the purpose, so now he often carries two, one for monitoring all channels, and the other on a fixed channel to listen for specific conversations. “If I hear ferry or tugboat captains warn of a kayaker in the channel I can call back and say it’s me. That makes everyone more comfortable.” He assembles his paddle and he’s about ready to go.

Paddling beside me across gentle waves, Dubside played at what he likes best, rolling. He surfaced each time with a big smile on his face admitting that it is difficult for him to stay upright. That’s not because he doesn’t have the skill to do so. “Even when I decide to stay dry for a day, I always end up rolling a few times because I enjoy it so much!”

Stealth is Essential

As we cross the channel to Whidbey Island he points this way and that, identifying places where he knows he could put in or get out. Relatively new to the Northwest, he’s becoming familiar with it. In time he might know it as thoroughly as Philadelphia, where he would decide on the best access and egress points depending on the weather, or if it was daylight or not. There were some intimidating places he felt he could land and take apart his kayak hidden by the vegetation of the bank without attracting unwelcome attention. He could not do the same when launching because people would follow him into the bushes. He’d felt vulnerable surrounded by hostile kids with his kayak only part assembled.

“Stealth paddling! That’s what I often did in Philly!” I could understand why the coast guard and police so often challenged this figure clad completely in black as he crept around the channels at dusk and lurked in the bushes.

Perhaps here in the friendly Northwest, he can be more relaxed. “All the Whidbey Island transit buses offer rides for free, and the ferry doesn’t charge passengers on the way back off the island. So, depending on the weather, I could change my plans and go over there, or over there, and catch a bus and ferry back to the mainland to get my bus home. That flexibility offers me more safety, more options if conditions are not how I expected. It doesn’t matter where I come ashore; I just pack up my kayak, look up the bus routes and timetables and figure out a way home.”

Taking advantage of that flexibility and independence is the style of operation Dubside refers to as “commando kayaking.”

Asked what he would change in his lifestyle, if he could, Dubside considers for a while before answering. “Maybe better mass transit. Perhaps if I moved closer to Seattle where the buses would run later, I’d have more options.” We drift while a ferry crosses our path on its way to dock. “We could catch that one if we pulled out the stops,” he says, eyeing up the distance left to paddle and calculating the time it would take to fold his kayak and wheel it aboard. But neither of us feels the need to rush.

Man with a Message

I ask if he preaches his lifestyle. “Not exactly. But you know, although a Feathercraft is an expensive bit of kit, you don’t have to have a lot of disposable income to enjoy paddling. If you don’t have a car, don’t have anywhere to store a kayak, don’t have much income, you can still do it. And that goes for adventure too. The media love to glorify the exotic places people go to paddle, but really, adventure can be anywhere and everywhere. You don’t have to go far to find it. Water freezes, there are eagles and wildlife dramas, you see tugboats and find out where they go, you get familiar with where the low-tide rocks are so you know where not to roll. There’s magic in the mist. Knowing an area intimately through different times of day, different tides and different sea- sons, with all the possible landing places and ways to get home from wherever you go—that’s something very special a tourist visiting an exotic location for a short time will never know.”

As he spoke, I was reminded of my early kayaking days. As a 16-year-old I walked my canvas kayak on a homemade trolley down two miles of winding hill to the coast near Brighton each time I wanted to paddle. Less versatile than a kayak I could carry on the bus, the rigid kayak on wheels yet offered me independence, the chance to escape to the English Channel, the door to the adventure I am still having.

I have to ask one more question. What about a life partner? I knew his answer before he replied. Not married yet, still looking for that perfect kayak wife. I don’t know who she will be, but I can imagine how she will be.

As Dubside wheeled his anonymous black bag from the ferry, I reflected on what I saw, and on what I knew. I saw an inconspicuous small figure in black dragging a bag, walking with the crowd up the landing ramp. I knew that particular one in the crowd as a committed kayaker, who tailored his life to fit his dream, not tailored his dream to fit his life. He is now producing instructional DVDs and booklets. He is invited to demonstrate and teach rolling at sea kayaking events. He is finding the way to do what he enjoys in a way that is in harmony with his ideals. I can relate to that.
It’s true, you don’t need much money. You just need to take the time.

This article first appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Adventure Kayak Magazine.
https://paddlingmag.com/stories/going-commando-kayaking-s-man-in-black/

I often run into people who ask me, “Who is Dubside?” It is common knowledge that Dubside's skills at competition rolling are among the best in the U.S. and his knowledge and talent for Greenland rope gymnatics are unsurpassed anywhere outside of Greenland. But did you know these fun facts about Dubside?
 

• Dubside’s first paddling job was as a guide at the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoe ride in Disneyland.
• Scientists calculate that based on the average growth rate of human hair, it would take most people at least 11 years to grow their hair as long as Dubside’s.
• If Dubside wore any color other than black, he probably would look more like a hippie and less like a Navy SEAL commando.
• Formerly a resident of Philadelphia, Dubside currently lives in a treehouse 95 feet high at the water’s edge in Anacortes, WA.
• When he’s not practicing for the 2006 Greenland National Championships, he’s building a 45 ft baidarka in which to explore the Inside Passage of British Columbia.
• The Greenlanders fear Dubside and call him Qivitoq -- the “mountain walker” -- a person with supernatural powers who shuns society and lives in the wilderness.
• There are many imitators and wannabees, but only one Dubside!

Ed Zachowski, Dubside and me at SSTIKS ’05.
You can’t believe it!
Dubside, my black brother and web phantom, has a website!!!
www.dubside.net
But still no e-mail…
Read his commando kayaking essay, to know in which world he’s living… :-))
He is an amazing sportsman, and must be made out of steel…no, not his hair!
I think it’s always funny when his long rasta locks are slipping out of the bottom of the legs of the pants… :-))
…or when, as at Sweetwater’s, all teachers were supposed to wear the light greyish teacher’s shirt at the meeting…Dubside’s shirt was peeping just an inch out under his black jacket…only opened carefully "undercover"… :-)) – he’s funny, that man!

He deserves a professional marketing, and was really lucky to get to work with Tom Sharp.

We both love folding kayaks to travel and teach…


http://freyahoffmeister.com/people/dubside-my-black-brother/