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Other: S.O.S. Iceberg Greenland Kayaks in 1933 movie
By:Will N to Go
Date: 1/12/2010, 9:48 pm

Just watched S.O.S. Iceberg It was shot in Greenland on location in the 1930s.
The final scenes contain about 50 traditional kayaks and Inuit's paddling them hard and fast. It's pretty neat.
Some terrific shots of the kayaks being taken down from racks, launched and paddled out to save the movie stars. I tried to clock the cadence, because in a couple of shots all the paddlers are almost all in sync. They're paddling between 120 and 135/140 strokes per minute! But there are several scenes that appear to have under and over cranking (which speeds up the film or goes slow motion) this shouldn't be taken as any kind of proof. However they keep about the same pace in the many shots that are inter-cut. (This is interesting to my Euro paddle shoulders, a much faster cadence with a narrower paddle should be as efficient but with much less stress. I can keep 70 strokes/minute, but I'm not sure about 140

There are two versions on the DVD, I'm watching the German version now, because I just learned that it's longer and has more shots than the English version. There are more kayak shots and it seems to have better quality. In the German version our Kayaking Inuit brothers perform some nice rolls! The iceberg even does a roll.

What's great about DVDs is that it can be stopped and then played at a single frame rate to see more detail. The movie star explorers wear fur, and the Inuit paddlers seem to be wearing cotton or canvas clothes. The kayaks appear to be mostly seal skin, a few appear to be painted canvas (but again I'm not an expert) . Lot's of interesting gear on their decks, inflated bladders, elevated platforms, probably some whaling gear. The paddles of course are all GP.

It's worth checking out. I rented it from Netflix, it stars Leni Riefenstahl-the Nazi filmmaker who nevertheless contributed to cinema and is Freya Hoffmeister hot posed across the bows of five kayaks. S.O.S. Iceberg is part of a genre of films Germans made in the 1920s and 30s about mountain climbing, arctic explorers--'Bergfilme', Riefenstahl and this type of filmmaking was later taken over by the Nazis but there's none of that stuff here. Ernst Udet the German World War I ace is also in the film.

I think I'll watch the kayak parts again in the morning.

Messages In This Thread

Other: S.O.S. Iceberg Greenland Kayaks in 1933 movie
Will N to Go -- 1/12/2010, 9:48 pm
Re: Other: S.O.S. Iceberg Greenland Kayaks in 1933
Sam McFadden -- 3/6/2010, 12:07 pm