47 Did all native kayakers know how to roll?
Description
This article is from the Sea Kayaking FAQ, by Todd Leigh with numerous contributions by others.
47 Did all native kayakers know how to roll?
No. The Greenland Inuits and the Alaskan Aleuts were well known for
their rolls but not all native kayakers knew how to roll or needed a
roll.
The Greenlanders were the masters of the roll. Their narrow boats, the
conditions they paddled in and unexpected complications during hunting
required them to develop numerous different rolls. In addition to the
typical rolling with a paddle, numerous "trick" rolls were known such
as rolling with the paddle held by one hand, using a harpoon shaft or
using just an open or closed hand. The reasons for this is during a
hunt the harpoon line could tangle and upset the boat or an injured
animal sometimes attacked the hunter. In either case if the hunter is
holding something he does not want to drop (like a knife) or the
paddle is temporarily stowed, he had to use these rolls. The
Greenlanders also used the bow rescue described below.
Some native kayakers used several different methods instead of a
roll. One is the bow rescue where a paddling partners bow is used to
pull one self up. This technique relied heavily on somebody being
close by. In another technique the paddler pulled themselves into the
boat and breathed the air inside the boat until somebody showed up and
a bow rescue could be performed. This technique required a boat one
could crawl into and someone showing up before the oxygen inside the
boat was used up. Certain groups added ballast to their boats to make
them stable, the weight varied from 50-100 pounds.
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