Paddling is certainly engrained in Polynesian culture, the paddle was basically used to populate the vast Pacific. Humans have used paddles for thousands of years in all cultures and in many forms.
As an instructor who coaches people on stroke technique, I sometimes wonder if paddling is something everyone already knows how to do instinctively, you just have to help them discover something they already know on some level. Maybe thats why it feel it so natural and soothing to paddle.
Paddle on!
Aloha, Robert Stehlik
www.blueplanetsurf.com
 |
| Canoe Drummond getting back to his roots photo credit: http://www.legendarysurfers.com/2011/10/canoe-drummond.html |
I posted these thoughts on the Standupzone as well, where some others commented on it, click here to read more.
I really like this concept. Apart from running, I can think of few physical activities which would have had as migratory, warfaring, and subsistence purpose as that of paddling. Dugout canoe designs emerged spontaneously in many cultures across the world. According to research, the oldest dugouts came from Europe, more than 8000 years ago.
ReplyDeleteIf you think about it, especially in the case of the Polynesian peoples as you have pointed out, those primitive tribes and groups who mastered the art of canoe building and navigation would have had a distinct survival advantage over those who didn't in terms of escaping natural disaster, finding new food sources, or raiding other less adept tribes and their lands.
Across the thousands of years of pre-history which these activities were performed and with the many early cultures who seemed to embrace a paddling lifestyle for survival purposes; it would make sense perhaps that for some cultures (and perhaps many -- but especially in the case of "water-bound" folks like Pacific Islanders) that today's people are the descendants of the successful migratory paddlers and warriors of the past and therefore perhaps many of us carry those same genes which would also make us naturally gifted paddlers.
Well said Michael. Yes, paddling skills were certainly an evolutionary advantage for many tribes, especially Polynesians and Eskimos but also in many other cultures that depended on paddling for food (fishing), transportation and migration.
Delete