Subject: Re: baidarka More About Paddles --> rolling
From: RCH3149@aol.com
Date: Wed Mar 08 2000 - 19:15:55 EST
In a message dated 00-03-06 11:38:14 EST, you write:
<< In the German speaking countries they have all but forgotten the name
"Pawlata" -- as in Hans Edi Pawlata of Austria, "the first non-Inuit to roll
a kayak" (1927). ... Ralph Hoehn >>
<< AKAIK, the first British kayakers to learn to roll were members of the
First Arctic Air Route Expedition in East Greenland, 1930-31. They learned to
kayak -- and to roll -- from the Inuit in kayaks specially made for them by
the Inuit. In _Watkins' Last Expedition_, Chapman describes a grueling kayak
journey he made with a group of Inuit in which he had to roll several times
to survive. Whether the expedition members taught anyone else to roll on
their return to the British Isles, I don't know. It might be that Pawlata had
more influence in that respect. Chuck Holst >>
Pawlata was an athlete besotted with a) the kayaking skill of Inuit paddlers,
b) the concept of making the paddler and the boat one inseparable unit, which
could only be achieved if the paddler never had to leave the boat while on
the water (i.e. only if he or she were able to recover from capsize with a
roll) and c) the application of a) and b) to white water. He marketed his
rolling technique by publishing a booklet under a catchy title which began
"Kipp, kipp Hurra ..." ("Tip, tip, hurrah"). He goes so far as to state that
the introduction of the roll, defines the introduction of "kayaking", as
opposed to the hitherto practiced sport of "canoeing"! Take that as you will.
In no way did I mean to belittle Watkins expeditions, but for the members
kayaking was a means to an end (according to John Brand's comments in LKB
III), not something they set out to import to England as a comodity.
Ralph Hoehn
Stamford CT
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