What is whitewater kayaking?
A: Whitewater kayaking is an adventure sport where a river is navigated in a
decked kayak.
Whitewater kayaking includes what styles?
A: River running, Creeking, Slalom, Play boating, Squirt boating.
What is river running?
A: River running is where the paddler follows a river and paddles rapids as
they travel.
What is creeking?
A: Creeking usually involves smaller, steeper, and more technical waterways.
Creek boats tend to be what?
A: Short but high volume to allow for maneuverability while maintaining
buoyancy.
Slalom requires paddlers to do what?
A: To navigate through "gates" (colored
poles hanging above the river).
Slalom is the only whitewater event to be in what?
A: The Olympics.
Play boating involves staying on one feature of the
river and is more what?
A: Artistic than the others.
Squirt boating uses low-volume boats (usually made
specifically for the paddler) to perform what?
A: Special moves in whitewater features.
The raft, the catamaran, the canoe and the kayak
evolved depending on the needs and environment of what?
A: The indigenous peoples in different parts of the world.
The modern-day kayak most likely originated when?
A: About 8,000 years ago along the Siberian coastline by the Yupik and then
transformed from the open canoe, via the Aleut and Inuit, into an enclosed
kayak.
The first boats made were hard to sink because they
contained what?
A: Inflated seal bladders, which made them ideal for navigating whitewater.
With the Industrial Revolution leading to more leisure
time in the middle of the 19th century, people in Europe started to enjoy
what?
A: Floating down rivers in various contraptions taking in nature previously
only available to a selected few.
In 1973, Tom Johnson a racer and trainer from
Kernville, California designs and markets what?
A: The Hollowform: the first roto-molded polyethylene boat.
It was mass-produced by whom?
A: A garbage can manufacturing company.
These virtually indestructible boats did what?
A: Revolutionized the sport, and quickly took off in California.
Paddlers no longer had to constantly do what?
A: Repair their boats during and after trips.
They began to be able to use rocks as part of what?
A: The strategy of negotiating difficult rapids.
Hard runs became more accessible to whom?
A: Less-skilled paddlers.
In 1978, Bill Masters, a kayaker and inventor in
Liberty, South Carolina did what?
A: He further perfected rotational molding for kayaks with his company
Perception Kayaks.
Bill advanced the sport of whitewater kayaking beyond
any of his predecessors through what?
A: Consistent innovations in manufacturing and design.
Rolling is an essential skill in what?
A: Whitewater kayaking.
This technique allows a flipped boater to do what?
A: To regain an upright position.
There are a variety of different styles of rolling, but
in whitewater paddling the styles which offer protection of the face receive
what?
A: Special emphasis.
The roll is normally used instead of a what?
A: A T rescue (so named because two kayaks form a T shape when used).
If the roll does not end with the kayaker upright they can do what?
A: Set up again and make additional attempts.
Multiple failed rolls usually result in what?
A: The paddler running out of breath .exiting the boat completely.