Subject: baidarka Re[2]: Re[2]: Re[2]: More About Paddles
From: vdoucett@uism.bu.edu
Date: Fri Mar 03 2000 - 12:10:14 EST
Dana,
A Bit of History from http://www.paddles.com/library/feath.txt
>>To our knowledge, all prehistoric North American "Eskimo" kayak
paddles were unfeathered.<<
To whose knowledge?
>>Exploring Europeans took the kayaking
concept back home in the late 1700s and early 1800s, and started
making recreational use of it.<<
These are VERY early dates. Any account of western white guys trying native
boats out would not amount to the birth of kayaking as a sport. Recreational
kayaking to my knowledge made its appearance in the mid-nineteenth century; and
though MacGregor is usually given the credit, I suspect he was only popularizing
an existing though perhaps obscure sport.
>>Early racers, mainly the English,
figured that one blade turned 90 degrees to the other would make
blade recovery through the air a bit easier (imagine that!). The
blade could slice through the air edgewise, rather than meet maximum
air resistance to its movement. That set the standard for the next
150 or so years -- creating future controversy is that innocently
simple!<<
What racers? Where? 150 years? Who wrote this? Where did you get this
information?
Sorry to be indulging my usual skepticism but this kind of speculating
drives me crazy.
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