Kayaking

People started using kayaks about 9,000 years ago, and while they are still widely used today, people use them for much different reasons now. Previously used for transportation and for hunting, kayaks now have a much more recreational use. I’ve gone on a few kayaking ventures with friends and family. While I was always last, lagging behind the group, I still had fun because it enabled me to see new things. In North Carolina I saw wild horses up close while kayaking in a sound with shallow grasses. Last Friday afternoon our History class decided to go kayaking. When we went as a group I wanted to be in a two person kayak, hoping that two people together would be faster than one. Lihi volunteered to be my kayaking partner! She and I had a pretty good start, sharing a bright orange kayak. Even getting in the kayak was easier than I remembered. However, we had difficulty coordinating our strokes and going in the direction we aimed for.

Reading about the history and the construction of kayaks, it sounds easy to maneuver. Kayaks were built in a hydrodynamic way, custom to each person. They used seal skin, creating a vessel that mimicked a creature built for swift swimming. Lihi and I did not find this to be the case for our kayak. Our brightly colored plastic kayak seemed large, heavy, and difficult to move. Our movements with the paddles were awkward and clumsy, especially when our paddles hit each other. We continually had to yell out “Left, paddle left!” to each other to keep from going too far out from sea.  
Maybe Lihi and I had trouble because we do not routinely rely on the kayak as a means of transportation or a way to gather food. Peter Stark, in his article “From the icy northern waters came the ancient sea kayak” notes that Aleut remains have evidence of huge arm bones, which reveals their dependency on strong arms for paddling kayaks. After about an hour of paddling around, my arms felt like jell-o.    
Stark also writes about the Sigdluk creating kayaks custom fit to each person. Various groups, according to their geographical area and the type of game they hunted, built differently shaped structures. For example some built kayaks with rounded bottoms, others had different types of bows, or different shaped decks. While they changed over time depending on terrain conditions and game, each kayak was built specifically for one individual, was lightweight for easy carrying, and swift for simple maneuvering in the water. My heavy plastic kayak was made for exploration and fun, and was definitely not crafted specifically for my size. Maybe I just needed more practice, but I found it quite difficult to go in any direction I wanted. With more instruction and experience I would definitely be feel more at ease paddling. However, we still had a blast on the trip and I can see why kayaks have been in use for so long. Even though we use them for much different purposes than they were initially intended for, people can still enjoy using them.

In addition to recreational purposes, kayaking is also an Olympic sport. Unlike Olympic kayakers, we were not aiming for speed on our trip. And unlike the Aleuts, searching for food to hunt, we were just trying to have fun. The weather was beautiful that day, with a few clouds shading us from the hot sun. The workers at the dive shop (where we rented the kayaks) dropped us and our kayaks off near Playa Blanca so we wouldn’t have to paddle against the current going back to the dive shop. However, it still seemed like the current pulled us around, testing our arm strength. Learning about the importance of kayaks in history makes me have a great appreciation for them and their creators.