Very interesting point Gerald. I didn't know that euro paddles were available to the eskimos but they did not adopt them. When offered something really useful (rifles, snowmobiles, processed foods, etc.), they adopt them quickly. Jack ----- Original Message ----- From: Gerald Maroske <GUM_at_exmail.de> To: <PaddleWise_at_paddlewise.net> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2001 10:06 AM Subject: Re:[Paddlewise] Technology guides paddle design. > 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/ ***************************************************************************
At 11:10 AM -0700 5/12/01, Jack Fu wrote: >Very interesting point Gerald. I didn't know that euro paddles >were available to the eskimos but they did not adopt them. >When offered something really useful (rifles, snowmobiles, >processed foods, etc.), they adopt them quickly. > If I am not mistaken, at the kayak championships in Greenland, European style blades are explicitly forbidden. Some times there are things going on other than pure evaluation of efficiency. It is hard to speculate at this distance everything that was going through peoples mind. -- Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 824 Thompson St Glastonbury, CT 06033 (860) 659-8847 *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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