RE: [Paddlewise] Greenland Paddles Revi

>At 2:48 PM -0500 8/5/98, Chuck Holst wrote:
>
>>(Five years ago I attended a talk by John Heath in which someone handed
>>him a paddle that did not have shoulders. Heath did not recognize it as
>>a Greenland paddle -- he wasn't sure what it was -- "Aleut?" he   guessed.
>>The person who handed him the paddle still makes paddles in that style
>>and sells them as Greenland paddles.)
>
>There is a slight implication here that Aleut paddles are somehow not as
>good as Greenland paddles. Is this intentional? If so why? Do Greenland
>paddles have some virtue that other, (non-Greenland) Inuit or Aleut,
>paddles do not have?

No slight on the Aleutian paddle was intended by me or, I am sure, by
John Heath. Heath giving a talk about the history and traditional use
of Greenland paddles, and was momentarily confused when he was handed a
paddle that was not a traditional Greenland type. I only offered that
story as an example of a commercially available "Greenland" paddle that
was not recognized as such by an acknowledged expert. I have no
experience with the Aleutian paddle, so I cannot personally compare it
to the Greenland paddle.

>In previous discussions the "Greenland" paddle was the benchmark. Is   this
>just laziness and we really mean all traditional paddles when we refer   to
>Greenland style?
>
>Nick Schade
>Guillemot Kayaks
>c/o Newfound Woodworks, 67 Danforth Brook Rd, Bristol, NH 03222
>(603) 744-6872

I cannot answer for others, but when I say Greenland paddle, I mean the
style (or styles) of paddle used in Greenland. Because there are so many
different traditional paddles in the Arctic, I don't see how anyone
could generalize about them any more than one could generalize about the
handling characteristics of traditional kayaks.

The main reason Greenland kayaks, paddles and paddling styles are so
popular is the unbroken kayaking tradition in Greenland. In most other
parts of the Arctic, traditional kayaking skills were either suppressed
or fell into disuse, and much information was lost. In Greenland,
especially in the Angmagssalik district, kayaks and kayaking
accessories continued to be made and used in the traditional style well
into the twentieth century, long enough to be documented in detail by
European explorers and ethnologists. And when interest in traditional
kayaking skills revived in Greenland in the 1970s and 80s, some of the
old-timers were still around to teach them.

There is also a historical connection with modern sea kayaking, in that
Edi Pawlata, who was the first person in Europe to roll a kayak, based
his Pawlata roll on written descriptions of Greenland techniques. Also,
in his talk on the history of British sea kayaking at the Great Lakes
Sea Kayak Symposium last weekend, Sam Cook (one of the members of the
famous 1975 Nordkapp expedition) pointed out that some of the earliest
fiberglass sea kayaks in Britain, such as the Anas Acuta, were heavily
influenced by traditional Greenland designs.

(Though he was careful to mention that there might have been parallel
developments elsewhere, Cook pointed out that several features that are
now standard in British sea kayaks, such as bulkheads, hatches, and
built-in pumps and compasses, were invented by members of the expedition
especially for their trip. They also asked Frank Goodman to design a
larger and faster kayak for the expedition than existed at the time. The
result, the Nordkapp, is still sold and paddled today.)

Chuck Holst



   






Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/

>>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<<


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