Hello Jack, several european paddlers using folding kayaks and european paddles have been among the greenland eskimo in the 1930s. At least more than 60 hunters of a great area attended the making of SOS Eisberg, where european paddles were available. They tried our paddles, and were asked about them: They said they were fine and fast but never adopted them. Gerald > When the Eskimos (or related peoples) designed their paddles, > what materials did they have to work with? Driftwood? Bone? > >From these materials you cannot build a shaft with wide blades, > because the blades would break. The only blades that would > last would be narrow (e.g., Greenland) blades. Thus I suspect > that the Greenland design came into being not because those > early folks rejected a wide blade design in favor of a narrow > blade, but because they did not have the materials (strong > glues for laminating, plastics, composites, etc - all the products > of technologically more advanced civilizations) needed to make > the narrow shaft & wide blade combination, or what is sometimes > called, condescendingly by some, the "white man's paddle." > > Please give some thought to this theory before you flame me > for my political incorrectness! > > :-) *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat May 12 2001 - 10:19:02 PDT
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