Kayaksport /Seakayaksport/Seakayaking       


The kayak sport has now been pursued for nearly a century. In 1920 Fridjof Nansen published the book, “Life of the Eskimos”. Chapters III “The Kayak and its Assessories” and IV “On the Ocean in a Kayak” provides a basis for the use of the kayak as a sporting vehicle. Moreover, it presents techniques, such as righting, i.e. the eskimo roll. If one examines the sport closer, one discovers that, especially since the middle of the last century, new methods and materials, especially the clock, have altered the course of the sport. Now the kayak is no longer a work place or means for survival, but an instrument of sport that only vaguely resembles the original kayak, or perhaps merely carries the same name.

 

In sea kayaks one does continue to utilize the form and some points of the construction methods of the original model’s capabilities that were developed over a thousand years of Inuit experience.

Both picture Prod. . Fa. Kl. Lettmann Moers Top Rennkajak, Typ VEGAS Unten Seekajak, Typ Godthåb


A renaissance towards the original Kayak has been started by Danish Kayakers. A “movement” has been initiated which all over the world is dealing with this boat and its basic ideas. Today anybody who wants to build a kayak enters a DIY shopping centre and simply buys the wood already sawn to measures as needed. It should not take more than 100 hours to finish a kayak. Obviously the way to construct and put a kayak together has been adapted to the techniques available today. Planes and screws are been used. As a consequence the methods published for building an original kayak reflect today’s techniques like using screws and painted linen.
Why should one, only because of nostalgic reasons, reject the usage of tools and aids as generally applied today? It is an important fact that there are people who are willing to pass on and impart the techniques of kayak building and thereby accomplish an important cultural contribution.