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Kayak and Canoe Design Bulletin Board
Re: GGGGRRRRRROOOOAAANNNNNNNNNNNN......
Posted By: Greg Stamer In Response To: GGGGRRRRRROOOOAAANNNNNNNNNNNN...... (PeteWP)
Date: Monday, 7 February 2000, at 11:37 a.m.
> To all who responded on the bifurcated bow "thingamajig", my
> opinion hasnt changed. In a nutshell, you cant credit these people with
> performance designs resulting in the mid to lower single digits of
> percentag improvements. Sorry thats strictly the domain of modern
> technology - that includes the use of an accurate stopwatch to say the
> least. Anything above that, say like 10% and up...ok...maybe... less than
> that and your just embracing romantic old world mysticism and the good
> fortune of serendipity.> C-c-c-c-c-c-can we end it h-h-h-h-here?
I was talking with Ken Fink recently and we were discussing wing paddles. In his opinion racers started switching to this design in large numbers only after paddlers whom they had routinely beaten for years changed to a "wing" and were now kicking their "gluteus maximus".
Why would it be any different for the Aleuts? In Greenland a man was judged primarily according to his hunting and kayaking ability and I imagine that the Aleuts had similar customs. As other posters have noted, the Aleuts often travelled extremely long distances.
Over many miles against a field of paddlers of known ability, even small design improvements are quite noticable. Modern technology and a stopwatch are not required to see that a paddler in a new kayak, who normally struggles to stay abreast of you is now 200 yards ahead of you over 20 miles. After this happens more than once, you will probably consider the same design changes for your next kayak.
Greg Stamer
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