Speed and seaworthiness were critical for the kayaks that Aleut hunters used for thousands of years to work the coastline of what is now Alaska. They ventured into some of the roughest conditions in the world: Low temperatures, very strong winds, and towering waves were routine for them. Early fur traders from Russia and Europe admired the Aleut boats, now commonly called baidarkas-the Russian name for them. In 1992, I heard George Dyson, whose influential 1986 book Baidarka focused on Aleut kayaks, give a six-hour lecture on the type. I was riveted by it; because of my formal training as a sculptor, the shape and complexity of the baidarka immediately appealed to me. This kayak's voluminous bow and stern were similar to the shapes that modern Whitewater boats, especially canoes, had evolved toward. I knew from experience (I had been paddling Whitewater for 15 years) how well a boat with that shape would ride in big waves.
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