What is a kayak?
A: A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by
means of a double-bladed paddle.
The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or
more what?
A: Cockpits, each seating one paddler.
The cockpit is sometimes covered by a spray deck that
prevents what?
A: The entry of water from waves or spray, differentiating the craft from a
canoe.
The spray deck makes it possible for suitably skilled
kayakers to do what?
A: To roll the kayak: that is, to capsize and right it without it filling
with water or ejecting the paddler.
Kayaks are also being sailed, as well as propelled by
means of what?
A: Small electric motors, and even by outboard gasoline engines.
Kayaks are often used to get closer to what?
A: Marine animals, such as sea otters.
The kayak was first used by whom?
A: The indigenous Aleut, Inuit, Yupik and possibly Ainu hunters in sub
arctic
regions of the world.
They used the boats to hunt on what?
A: Inland lakes, rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North
Atlantic, Bering Sea and North Pacific oceans.
These first kayaks were constructed from what?
A: Stitched seal or other animal skins stretched over a wood or
whalebone-skeleton frame.
Western Alaskan Natives used wood whereas the eastern
Inuit used whalebone due to what?
A: The treeless landscape.
Kayaks are believed to be how old?
A: At least 4,000 years old.
The oldest kayaks remaining are exhibited where?
A: In the North America department of the State Museum of Ethnology in
Munich, with the oldest dating from 1577.
The Aleut baidarka was made in double or triple cockpit
designs for what?
A: Hunting and transporting passengers or goods.
An umiak is a large open-sea canoe, ranging from 5.2 to
9.1 m (17 to 30 ft), made with what?
A: Seal skins and wood.
It is considered a kayak although it was originally
paddled with what?
A: Single-bladed paddles, and typically had more than one paddler.
Native builders designed and built their boats based on
what?
A: Their own experience and that of the generations before them passed on
through oral tradition.
The word "kayak" means what?
A: "Man's boat" or "hunter's boat".
Native kayaks were a personal craft, each built by
whom?
A: The man who used it.
Inuit kayak builders had specific what for their boats?
A: Measurements.
The length was typically what?
A: Three times the span of his outstretched arms.
The width at the cockpit was what?
A: The width of the builder's hips plus two fists (and sometimes less).
The typical depth was his fist plus what?
A: The outstretched thumb (hitch hiker).
Therefore typical dimensions were what?
A: About 5.2 m (17 ft) long by 51–56 cm (20–22 in) wide by 18 cm (7 in)
deep.
This measurement system confounded early European
explorers who tried to do what?
A: Duplicate the kayak because each kayak was a little different.
Traditional kayaks encompass what three types?
A: Baidarkas, West Greenland kayaks, and East Greenland kayaks.