43 What does kayak mean?
Description
This article is from the Sea Kayaking FAQ, by Todd Leigh with numerous contributions by others.
43 What does kayak mean?
Hunters boat. The boats primary purpose was to hunt animals on inland
lakes, rivers and the sea. In many places where the native kayakers
lived they had to turn to the water for food because the land was not
fertile enough to support their population. It was also used for
transportation across open water and rivers. Most but not all kayaks
are considered seaworthy.
It was made of seal skins and wood. The wood was driftwood that was
collected off of beaches. Many of the areas where kayaks were paddled
are void of the land based raw materials used in making birchbark
canoes or dugout canoes.
Archaeologists have found evidence indicating kayaks to be at least
4000 years old.
The word kayak appears in literature spelled different ways: kyak,
kyack, kaiak, qajaq.
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