Inflatable Kayak Blog

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to paddle a kayak made of wood sticks and animal skins? Maybe not, but that’s how kayaks originated. The small ‘human-powered’ boat that we know as a kayak was originally developed by Native Aleut and Eskimo hunters in sub-arctic regions of North America and Greenland. They used the boats to hunt on inland lakes rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic, Bering Sea and North Pacific oceans. These first kayaks were constructed from stitched animal skins such as seal stretched over a wooden frame made from collected driftwood, as many of the areas of their construction were treeless. Archaeologists have found evidence indicating that kayaks are at least 4000 years old.

The closest you can come to paddling an “original kayak” today is to paddle a folding kayak. Of all modern kayaks, they are closest relatives to the skin-and frame vessels of the past. Folding kayaks exhibit many of the same paddling characteristics. Their ‘skin’ also absorbs some of the energy from waves and actually makes for a smoother ride than that of a hard shell kayak.