Kayaking

In the sport of kayaking, a paddler or user sits down in the kayak with their feet facing the front. The top of the kayak is covered with a deck. The paddler sits in a little hole in the cockpit that may or may not be sealed off with a spraydeck or spray skirt. This is in case the kayak capsizes, so that the vessel does not fill with water and the paddler can turn the kayak right side up again without taking on any water. This maneuver, in particular, is known as an Eskimo Roll.

Kayaks were originally developed by the Inuit peoples living in the Arctic areas of Greenland and North America. The term ‘kayak’ means, literally, ‘man’s boat’. These early kayaks were built from a wooden frame that was then covered with an animal skin such as the skin of seals.

Kayaks were initially constructed by the man who would use them, and was usually assisted by his wife, who usually did the preparing of the animal skins. The skin jacket of the hunter is then sewn into the skins of the kayak in order to create a waterproof barrier.

In these earliest types of kayaks, the paddler was literally sewn into the boat, such that the kayak was more like a type of clothing or covering that allowed the hunter to maneuver great distances through the water and stay warm and protected while doing it. Such constructions made maneuvers like the Eskimo Roll impossible. For the Inuit peoples, any exposure to cold water typically meant death. The paddles of these earliest kayaks were generally longer and more narrow than kayak paddles of today.

In more recent times, kayaks have been developed into a variety of different types including: playboats, whitewater, sea kayaks, surfing kayaks, flat-water racing, slalom, downriver racing, canoe polo and recreational.

These various types of specialty kayak may also be further subdivided. Modern kayaks are typically made of fiberglass, plastic, Kevlar, canvas, carbon fiber, plastic and other woods or fabrics. Kayaks come in single, double, and rarely three person models. Some sit-on-top boats are called kayaks, thought they are not truly the same as kayaks. They are called kayaks because users sit on top and use a similar double ended paddle.

The different types of kayak design are largely a matter of trade-offs between directional stability and maneuverability. As a general rule, faster boats are the boats that are longer, while a shorter boat may be turned more quickly. A longer hull creates a much smoother transition from the narrowest past of the boat to the widest section, and so cuts through the water with much less resistance, similar to how a sharp knife cuts more easily than a dull one.

Though longer boats have a higher maximum speed, the effect is largely countered by increased friction, and only becomes a weighty factor at top racing speeds. Kayaks built to cover great distances such as sea kayaks and touring kayaks are generally longer; between fifteen and eighteen feet.

Whitewater kayaks typically depend on the river current for forward momentum, and are built quite short so that maneuverability is maximized. Flat water racing types of kayaks are built for superior efficiency and speed, and may be greater than twenty feet in length.

Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory. This means that as a publisher you may reprint the articles that are included in our site, as long as the article is unedited and the author box is included with it's live hyperlinks.