"Multiple times. And then my coach got us doing it as many times as possible to get used to it," he says, recalling how they used the sides of the pool with their hands to find motion.
"Getting used to that is the biggest thing straight away and then getting confidence paddling and turning without falling."
Keeping the vessel moving in a straight line requires consistency in thrusts when paddling or else the canoe will veer off route.
Talbot says turning with a paddle push at the tail-end of the vessel requires core strength and balance.
The skirt that holds the paddler inside the canoe takes some getting used in a sport which rewards rolling an unsuspecting rival from behind.
"That's kind of the difference between a person who gives up in canoe polo immediately or someone who can roll and gains faith to continue to play."
The incremental gains are obvious from week to week, month to month and year to year but to attain a level of competence to representative level requires long-term commitment.
"The girls have quite a lot of aggressiveness but it's just a male thing so everyone wants to push you over," says Talbot of something that can occur once or twice a rep game.
However, rolling can also happen if you slip on a paddle or while shooting.
It wasn't until he got into the second-tier B grade level that Talbot thought he could make inroads in the code.
"It's a boys-to-men thing. You just have to have a stronger mind set on the understanding of the game with better ball skills, better shooting, better paddle skills so you just need to take things to the next level."
Guard, forward or goalkeeping, as school skipper Talbot has had to be the wild card. Last year their goalkeeper was at the world championship for kayaking so he took on board the keeping responsibilities.
"I'm not completely fussed, which is probably one of the reasons that help me excel."
Talking constantly in the water also is essential because games between front runners the Bay, Expose, comprising national reps, and Vikings Black, of Palmy North, can become quite heated.
Talbot's goal this weekend is to catch the eye of NZ selectors not only as an individual but a cog in the wheel.
"It's quite a big weekend for me because if I make the NZ team then a whole more doors open, like worlds and stuff like that."
A key put-off for people at top level, he reckons, is buying equipment up to $3000-$4000.
No doubt he is indebted to his parents, Minnie and James, for bailing him out but he intends to reimburse them down the road.
His Bay coach is Jed Graham, of Napier, and Wade Miller, of Hastings, who is a player/coach.
Talbot has attended two national trials and this weekend's championship will double up as the third one.
The Bay senior men's team this month won the Arahua tourney in Palmy North so, in some respects, will wear the favourites tag on their home patch.
Talbot, as a first-year pupil at Havelock North Intermediate, wanted to try something different from basketball and rugby with his twin, Hamish, by nine minutes, and a best mate, so canoe polo caught his eye.
The reinforcement came when a group of former Bay reps turned up at school to hold a training session.
"I think we got hooked from there because we saw how good they could be and how much fun it is."
While in some codes it is simply a case of picking up a ball or bat to hone one's skills fairly quickly, canoe polo put Talbot through a four-year ragging process.
"It's like feeling confident about it and getting to the places I want to with the sport."
The former secondary schools' national competitive swimmer and surf lifesaving enthusiast had no qualms about wetting his hair.
He says the sport has evolved every in the province.
"B grade and C grade have had the most players that we have seen for a long time."
The region has about a dozen female and male teams with Palmy North as the key hubs for growth.
Talbot says the titles won at school and regional levels reflect that resurgence.
The HNHS senior boys' team were runners-up at the secondary school's nationals in Palmerston North last year.
