1000-1900 -- The first kayaks were
fashioned out of driftwood and animal skins by the natives of the
arctic regions of Asia, North America, and Greenland. These long,
narrow, covered boats were ideally suited for hunting seals and
walruses across the frigid arctic waters. In fact, the name kayak
means "hunter's boat."
Over time, the Inuits, Aleuts, and other natives
modified the kayaks for the area of the arctic that they lived in.
Lashed together with animal sinews, these early boats used seal
bladders filled with air to make the them buoyant and nearly
unsinkable. These native hunters would fill the boats with enough
supplies for extended hunting expeditions across the inhospitable
arctic environment.
Eventually, word of these amazing covered canoes
reached the citizens of Europe. Before long people in France and
Germany began boating down rivers in kayaks for sport. These
countries are filled with mountain ranges, and the rivers that
plunge out of the rocky slopes offer challenging rapids.
1931 -- A Vienesse kayaker by the
name of Adolf Anderle is the first person to successfully
negotiate the Salzachofen Gorge on the Salzach River. His
successful run of this dangerous river raised whitewater standards
in Europe and elsewhere. A short time later, kayaking
organizations developed the Internatinal Scale of River
Difficulty, a standard that is still in use today to classify the
difficulty of river rapids.
1936 -- In time, the Europeans fell in
love with these new covered boats, all but abandondoning the
large, open boats that they'd previously used for river
navigation. Kayaking clubs bagan to spring up in Germany and
France. Whitewater competitions followed shortly thereafter. In
1936, "flatwater" racing became an Olympic sport in the
Summer Games in Berlin, Germany (the very same Olympics in which
Jessie Owens made a mockery of Hitler's "Master Race"
theory).
1928 -- True story: on August 1 of this
year, Captain Fran Romer is discovered asleep in his kayak in the
harbor at St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. So what's the big
deal, you ask? Well it seems that Captain Romer had just sailed
and paddled his kayak almost 4000 miles, all the way from Lisbon,
Portgual. And he survived not one but two hurricanes along the
way!
1938 -- Genevieve De Colmont becomes the
first women to pilot a kayak through the rapids of the Colorado
and Green Rivers. Along with her husband Bernard and a friend,
Genevieve proved that kayaks were far better suited to running
wild water than the heavy wooden boats favored by outdoorsmen and
explorers at the time.
1975 -- Three men: Tom McEwan, Wick
Walker, and Dan Schnurenburger kayak the Great Falls of the
Potomac River. This was a stretch of wild water that had been
feared and avoided by boaters for centuries. In the years
following their historic run, all three paddlers have refused to
reveal who was the first man over the Spout, the deadliest drop in
the churning Great Falls rapids.
1977 -- Three more kayakers make history
this year. Jim Snyder, Mike Fentress, and Phil Coleman become the
first paddlers to successfully negotiate the notorious Quarry Run,
a tributary of the Cheat River in West Virginia. After one
especially brutal drop, Coleman nearly died when his slalom kayak
became lodged in the river's gravel bottom. Today, paddlers who
descend Quarry Run use inflatable boats that won't spear the river
bottom.
1994 -- Another first. Kent Wiggington
becomes the first paddler to tame the Class VI rapids of the
Tallulah River in northern Georgia. Wiggington's successful run
helped to publicize a government decision to provide more
recreational opportunities on the river by releasing water from an
upriver dam.
I'm sure there's much we've left out here.
Who knows, maybe you're out there making your own kayaking history
right now!
No Play in that old Playboat?
Are you losing ground--not to mention bragging
rights--to your buddies in their sleek new playboats? Has your
trusty old kayak been dinged and patched so many times it's
beginning to resemble a crash test dummy? Or are you new to the
sport and looking for your first whitewater kayak?
If so, you might consider purchasing your next
boat from one of the online merchants. Retail paddling shops are
great if you can find one, but most only carry one or two brands,
and expect to pay the full retail price. Online merchants, on the
other hand, often carry several brands and dozens of kayak models,
and usually at very competitive prices. They have secure ordering
systems, good warranty and return policies, and will ship
virtually anywhere in the world. And you won't have to spend a
weekend driving all over town in search of that perfect new boat.
If you've got a moment, check out one of our
recommended merchants. You'll be pleasantly surprised at what you
find.
