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Paddling across lakes and down rivers in canoes and kayaks is a centuries-old pursuit. Construction workers digging a highway in the Netherlands discovered what is believed to be the oldest known canoe. It dates back about 10,000 years. Similar discoveries have been made in Australia and throughout the Americas, from the Great Lakes region to the Amazon. Hollowing out a tree trunk and lining it with bark was the most natural way for indigenous people to solve the problem of crossing rivers and lakes.

Europeans learned this quickly as they explored North America from the 16th into the 19th century. They built and used canoes extensively for transportation of people and goods, some as big as 35 feet (11 meters) long. Kayaks were the canoes of the North. Lacking an abundance of wood like their native counterparts to the South, the Inuit developed a different design made with a whalebone frame with animals skins stretched over it. Rather than being open craft like canoes, kayaks were designed to be easily righted if flipped over as the paddler is enclosed in the kayak from the waist down so as not to be thrown if capsized . The sport versions of canoeing and kayaking naturally progressed as technological advancement led to power sources and boat designs that provided more efficient means of transportation, and paddling became recreational.

Competitive kayaking tests the paddler’s skill at maneuverability and control.

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