July 02, 2004

Librarians on the march!

While looking up some information about our local July 4th parade, I found that the motorcycle drill teams are going to have some real competition this year.

Aieee! I find out that this is information from last year's parade, not something new, as I've told my friends. (Our church has its own float in the parade, so I usually only see the groups immediately before and behind us, and missed these skilled information professionals last year.)

Posted by ronlusk at 03:35 PM | Comments (1)

July 01, 2004

On Kayak Rolling

The folks at QCC Kayaks have provided a helpful discussion of kayak rolling: physics principles as well as techniques.

I know there is a kayak roll technique called a Pawlata roll. I do not know of one called a Watkins roll (although there may be such). Perhaps the reason for this is given in the quotation below:

The first non-Inuit known to have learned to roll was the Austrian, Edi Pawlata, who taught himself in 1927 after reading accounts by the explorers Nansen and Jophansen. An English explorer, Gino Watkins, learned directly from the Inuit in 1930, but unfortunately he disappeared on a trip to the Arctic soon afterwards. These early European rolls involved levering the body upright from the water with little or no hip flick.
Posted by ronlusk at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)