Word: kayaker
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...goal was to retrace, in part, the bold voyages of early Polynesian seafarers who gave this vast area a common culture, now corrupt and moribund. Theroux took the big hops by plane or ship. But his preferred mode of travel was a collapsible, 16-ft.-long French-made kayak, which he paddled -- carefully -- through dangerous waters infested by crocodiles, sharks and stinging Portuguese man-of-wars...
...most intriguing elements of baidarka design are those that show the Aleuts' rejection of typical kayak forms in favor of a distinctive approach. Dyson speculates that the forked bow prevents the boat from submarining in waves. It also gives the kayak the speed advantage of a longer, slenderer craft, and may set up a wave that counteracts the drag-inducing bow wave of ordinary designs. The oddly configured stern may help the kayak make the transition from a vessel that pushes through the water to one that planes on top of the water...
Dyson believes that the baidarka will have a robust future, influencing the shape of modern sport kayaks. Physicist Francis Clauser designed a forked-bow craft for a syndicate in the 1986-87 America's Cup race. Dyson still speaks of the genius of the Aleut kayak builders with reverence: "Modern science has recognized all the elements that went into the baidarka, but nobody put them together to achieve a synthesis the way the Aleuts...
...early days, most travelers ventured to Freeport only to shop at Bean's. If outdoorsy families wanted to buy a tent, a kayak, moose hunting equipment or a just a pair of duck shoes, they piled in the station wagon and made the road trip through Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Freeport...
...Californian and sometime student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., the most gifted natural athlete on the squad; Shirley Dery, 22, born in the U.S. of Hungarian parents, who trained until last year with the powerful Hungarian team; and Leslie Klein, 29, from Concord, Mass., another kayak gypsy who converted from white-water kayaking. Klein spent years "living out of a car in soaking wet clothes, eating gritty oatmeal." Her life is somewhat more conventional now; she is married to J.T. Kearney, a phys-ed professor at the University of Kentucky, who took a sabbatical to train...