Pete: John Winters is a prolific writer in the paddlewise mail list. Thought you would be interested in his dissertation here. Jim
attached mail follows:
My dear friend and occasional research assistant John Winters has asked that I post to this thread. I was born April 3, 1939. I recall my first roll while in my mother's womb possibly as a result of her getting a tattoo of a kayak on her belly with the longitudinal center of gravity located precisely at her navel. I was a precocious child and spoke four Inuit and three Cree dialects by the age of 7. Needless to say, I had exceptional paddling skills having been taught by the famous Juanissee. At the age of 10 I made my fist open water crossing paddling across Lake Superior in a home made dugout canoe. I used my father's inflatable dolls as supplementary stability with the blonde strapped to the port side and the brunette on the starboard side. Had I been aware of patents at the time I would have been as rich as that fellow who stole my idea. I completed my formal education at the age of twelve and set out to make my mark in Inuit anthropology. My first book, Playing Doctor in Inuit communities established me as an authority on Inuit sexual mores and is still the standard text on the topic. The strain of research soon forced me to shift my field of study to Inuit kayaks and I as the first to properly define the Greenland kayak and its derivations. By 1980 I had grown bored with sea kayaking. The Brits had turned it into a commercial fabrication and assorted pseudo anthropologists had begun writing popularised studies of the boats. Rather than fight the misinformation I shifted my focus to canoes where the industry was still languishing in the dark ages of literature. There is no truth to the rumour that I left the Arctic under a pederastic cloud of suspicion. The only way to study the relationship between Inuit youth and Catholic priests is to observe closely their activities. If I observed too closely it was in the name of science. My contributions to the symbolism in canoe stem shapes received critical acclaim among intelligent paddlers as did my studies of the cocaine traffic between Mayan and Cree tribes of Quebec. In 1991 I returned to the Arctic to follow up on rumours of the great Inuit Crotch Dirigibles and their connection with the discovery of Scotland and the British by the Inuit. I point to the results of that study and how it led to a greater understanding of the Inuit influence on Egyptian culture in the Fifth Dynasty with pride. Currently I am at work studying the Resolute Bay paddling style which is unique among Inuit paddling styles and has been completely ignored by narrow minded paddlers incapable of looking at Inuit culture as a great continuum of development rather than a series of isolated events. Currently I paddle fifteen or so Inuit reproductions made from both seal skin and the skins of humans sacrificed to the great God Sargon. I can do three hundred and fifteen different rolls and seven variations of the paddle float rescue. I never use any electronic gear, life jackets or other such wimpy equipment designed for unskilled North American casual paddlers. I find the standard of paddling to be absurdly low among BCU and ACA instructors who spend more time capsizing than paddling although I confess that they can roll nicely Respectfully, Dr. Peregrine Inverbon, Ph.d., DD, LL.d, Ph.G Transcribed by his humble servant John Winters *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Who am I (`whoami`) - better late than never? I'm Greg Hollingsworth and I'm in my fifth year of sea kayaking. I have always had innate love for the sea. I find that being out on the water calms my soul and sets me right. I first learned this when I was a kid and was taken sailing by my father. Later in life, I picked up windsurfing and later sailing in larger boats. I spent my first two years in college at St. Mary's College of Maryland where I majored in windsurfing. I later found that conditions for windsurfing were unsatisfactory unless the winds were 25 knots or better. Frustration quickly set in as these conditions rarely come about on the Chesapeake. For several years, I sailed around the bay on larger sailboats until one summer when my wife and I decided to take a two-week trip to Alaska. Although we had never kayaked before, we choose to tour Glacier Bay in kayaks. We wanted to get the most out of the trip and felt that only kayaking would provide the experience we were looking for. We loved our long days in the double kayak and our nights under the stars. Once back, I bought my first boat and quickly learned that I enjoyed paddling the Chesapeake in both calm and challenging conditions. I love paddling down an isolated river as much as I love surfing ocean waves. I enjoy paddling alone and with others. Recently I purchased a new boat and I'm hoping that my wife will join me on occasional trips using my old boat. My 8-year-old daughter is now showing interest in paddling and when the water is warm enough, I hope to take her on trips. In the mean time, we've been working on the basics in the pool. I'm hoping her love for the sea will be as strong as mine. She's been taken on sailing trips since she was 3 months old. My son is 5 and also is interested in kayaking... he needs to learn to swim quite a bit better first. My current boat of choice is my new NordKapp Jubilee; I use a Greenland-style paddle that I made myself. I just recently made the switch from a Euro-style paddle. I've got a pretty solid roll and I paddle year round in this area. I carry a ton of equipment (I'm a gear head). I live in Maryland and do most of my paddling in the Chesapeake or Atlantic. I hope to paddle Maine and the San Juan Islands at some point in my life. I also hope to see the rest of the Chesapeake, it's a wonderful place to paddle. Oh yeah, I'm not an old fart, I'm 39. I turn into an old fart in 3 months when I hit 40. Despite my turning into an old fart, I expect to remain "young at heart" forever. Greg *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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