23 Folding Kayaks
Description
This article is from the Sea Kayaking FAQ, by Todd Leigh with numerous contributions by others.
23 Folding Kayaks
Authors: Ralph Diaz, Edward Hasbrouck (for travel limit questions)
"It is impossible to exaggerate the usefulness of a folding
kayak. Even the hackneyed phrase 'flying carpet' is appropriate to
this ingeniously conceived craft . . . There is an immense amount to
be learned about this deceptively simple boat. I suspect the reason
for the folding kayak's complexity is inherent in the boat's
design. All other craft have conventional similarities--a little
plastic motorboat has many features in common with the QE II, but
these have nothing in common with a folding kayak. Consider the shape
and construction of the folding kayak, or any skin boat, and you have
to reach a conclusion that its nearest equivalent is an animal's body,
not a fish but a mammal, a vertebrate. It has an interior skeleton,
ribs, joints, a spine; it has a head and a tail, it has a hide, it
flexes. To this animal shape the paddler brings a brain, and energy,
and guts."
- from the Foreword by Paul Theroux to Ralph Diaz's _The Complete
Folding Kayaker_ published in 1994.
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