[Paddlewise] Greenland

Hi PeterO,

Indeed, there are many of us interested in the Greenland skills, 
boats, paddles and gear. Do you get Sea Kayaker Magazine? I 
wrote a story about Cindy Cole, Greenland boats and skills over 
the past 20 years at Camp Arrowhead, Delaware, US. I have extra 
copies.

The short story is that Cindy and her husband, Charlie Cole started 
an annual Fall retreat for paddlers in 1988. The program became 
popular. After a few years, a few of got hold of a video about the 
paddling clubs in Greenland and demonstrating their rolling skills.

At that time, common wisdom was that paddlers must only learn 
the C-C roll whether they were river paddlers or sea kayakers. I 
converted to back deck rolls in the late 1970's after damaging my 
left elbow doing endless successive C-C rolls one happy summer 
day. It put me out of business for the rest of the season. In 
subsequent class 4-5 white water, rolling to the back deck, I never 
missed a roll!

When the folks at Arrowhead saw the skill and grace of the 
Greenland paddlers showing off their rolling skills, there was just no 
stopping them. The race was on to see who could learn the most 
different rolls. At the 10th year anniversary, they got Maligiac 
Padilla, Greenland rolling/paddling champion for that year to travel 
to Arrowhead and show off his skills. We always just did one roll 
then another, each separate from the last

In his opening set, using an authentic Greenland skinboat and 
paddle, Maligiac ran of a series of about 8 different rolls, each 
linked to the one before, with hardly a splash anywhere in the set.
It was the first time I ever saw a series of different rolls performed in 
the manner of a carefully scripted gymnastic routine.

Since then, the Greenland skills etc have grown like a wind-blown 
prairie fire. Many of us have build our own boats and paddles. I 
have a pile of Greenland paddles out in the garage (different 
designs). I made my most recent one out of a red cedar trunk 
collected in my back yard. The trunk wasn't quite straight resulting 
in a slight bend in the middle. How about that... the first "bent 
shaft" Greenland paddle. I plan to steam it to get the bend out.

Cheers,
Chuck Sutherland
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