Lit review
INTRODUCTION
How did freestyle kayaking progress in just a few decades from simple vertical maneuvers in those long, classic, “old-school” kayaks to a competitive sport with difficult aerial maneuvers performed in boats nothing like their old counterparts? How did it evolve? As I have learned so far, it’s a great story to tell but a strange one to research. Scholarly documentation of this niche sport/form of recreation is nonexistent, and the bulk of my research has centered on continuing to build up my own knowledge of freestyle kayaking and boat design and in turn using that to analyze the type of documentation that there is plenty of: kayaker-produced media. From a number of old, shaky reels I’ve found posted online dating back to the early ‘80s to the abundance of action-packed, dubstep-infused kayaker-produced media of today’s freestyle, I’ve been attempting to trace the history of the sport in part through kayaking footage. I've also looked at the kayaks that companies were putting out on the market throughout playboating's history. The first thing I learned from both of these methods was that the story of the evolution of the sport must be told along with the story of evolution of the kayak itself, as the two are so closely intertwined.
There are, however, still some more concrete documentation sources from which to draw perspective in my research; kayakers have proved to be sufficiently introspective to make for the existence of a few kayaker-produced works I’ve found so far (in varying degrees of professionalism) that at speak at least in part to the evolution of freestyle kayaking. Potentially my greatest asset is yet to come – I am now reaching out to a number of professional kayakers I know, and also ones who I don’t, who have been involved with the progression of freestyle at varying points during its evolution. I expect that these interviews may prove to tie together the scattered information I have accumulated so far.
EVOLUTION THROUGH THE YEARS
The overall trend in the evolution of kayak freestyle has been a transition from the easiest, most primitive ways to get a kayak vertical in the water and basic front-surfing of stationary river features to going aerial with loop-based moves (referring to tricks that operate on the same principle as the loop to give the kayaker upward lift) in holes or with bunt-based moves (producing motion as one would with the basic blunt maneuver) on waves (Currents V2_7). Surfing of stationary river features has been present since the early 1980s (Kayak 03_4 19 Ottawa McCoys.avi) but I haven’t yet found any footage of freestyle kayaking in the 1970s; stationary play may very well have existed before the 1980s. Trends in this era show long, traditional-looking boats with few easily visible features differentiating them even as whitewater kayaks, let alone as dedicated freestyle boats, which wouldn’t come until well over a decade later.
My accumulated footage so far then picks up again with an edit made in the late 1980s (Whitewater Kayaking Ottawa Old School Style) that shows a strikingly similar scene to the paddling almost a decade earlier. Boat design has changed little, and while blasts were certainly popular during this time, the footage shows that surfing of large features was still primitive from today’s perspective with little more shown than front-surfing, side-surfing, spins, and uncontrolled carnage in the notorious “Phil’s Hole” of the Ottawa River. This footage makes clear quite visibly that boats still lack the capacity to handle in a hole of such magnitude as Phil's - very telling of design characteristics - and more generally that progression in freestyle hadn't yet reached the faster pace that would define the next decades.
Five years later there have been remarkable changes, as can be seen in footage of the 1994 Augsburg Rodeo (Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Lautes Edit and Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Langsames Edit), which shows top-level freestyle of the time. The rodeo marks the development of the “cartwheel era,” as vertical, cartwheel based moves are dominant in the hole; very few consecutive ends are thrown, though, suggesting that cartwheels are still "maturing." This development soon became realized. Just before the turn of the century, we see - along with a coinciding tapering of the ends of kayak's bows and sterns - the entrance into what I consider to be the golden age of the cartwheel. Top-level riders perform cartwheel after controlled cartwheel with few other tricks performed in video of the 1999 Canadian freestyle team trials (Canadian Whitewater Freestyle Team Trials). Clips of kayakers blowtorching the stern of a kayak to soften it and then running it over with a truck to make it thinner and “slicier” foreshadows greater volume reductions in the bow and stern soon to come. Evidence of this rapidly progressing trend is later evident in the large 2000 Ocoee Rodeo (Ocoee Whitewater Rodeo 2000), where the golden age of the cartwheel is seen in full swing. The boats are still fairly long, but boats used, such as the Dagger Ultrafuge, show marked volume reductions.
The next big leap in boat design comes in 2002, bringing freestyle kayaking out of the cartwheel era and into the aerial era with both loops and blunt-based moves appearing on the radar during this year; not only blunts but Pan-Ams, helixes, and even airscrews take the waves. A dramatic reduction in boat length is largely what is responsible for making these tricks possible (Chambly) (Phat Philm Pt.1) (Phat Philm Pt.2). 2001 preceded this with boats like the WaveSport EZ – kayaks that bridged the gap between boats like the Ultrafuge and more modern-looking 2002 designs like the Riot Techno – which marked the end of the “slicey boat era” (Kayak to Hell). Boats from this point on were still largely influenced by the cartwheel but would become increasingly tailored to maximum performance with loop-based moves.
My most current collection of footage picks up with 2010’s Stakeout kayaking film. (I have yet to fill in the preceding gap in time with footage but it is definitely possible.) Stakeout is known for being representative of progression in big wave freestyle. Here we see that the transition into the combo-move era has been made, as top professional paddlers perform sequences of moves on coinciding bounces as opposed to individual tricks. The film shows a clear difference between combo moves of 2010 and those of the most current paddling to date, as spins roundhouses, blunts, and backstabs are relied upon more heavily to give a move (most often an air screw or PanAm) its combo status (Stakeout). The progression in freestyle over the past three years since then is put in perspective by a number of recent kayak edits showing the world’s elite paddlers at their best on similar or identical river features to those in the original Stakeout. Most broadly, we see even bigger air and combos linking increasingly difficult moves. Combo sequences including a very technical move such as an airscrew might also contain up to three other tricks, and a recent trend seen most widely in 2013 is performing sequences that culminate in a highly technical move, as opposed to starting with them, as was most commonly seen in preceding years. Hole boating follows similar trends, with combo sequences based on newer loop-based tricks increasing in length, as well aerial maneuvers increasing in height at top levels (Stakeout Progression) (Pringles Summer Sessions) (2013 Freestyle Kayaking World Championships) (Jackson Kayak – Carbon).
Works Cited
*Currents V2_7: The Ottawa River. Vimeo. Five2Nine, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
*Kayak 83_4 19 Ottawa McCoys.avi. YouTube. PA Whitewater Challenger Crew, 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Whitewater Kayaking Ottawa Old School Style. YouTube. N.p., 30 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Lautes Edit! YouTube. N.p., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Langsames Edit.. YouTube. N.p., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Canadian Whitewater Freestyle Team Trials - Cepal 1999. YouTube. N.p., 06 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Ocoee Whitewater Rodeo 2000 (Pro Kayak Comp). YouTube. Shane Reynolds, 28 Nov. 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
"History." Kayak to Hell. Kayak2hell, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Chambly. Perf. Steve Fisher. YouTube. N.p., 4 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Phat Philm Pt.1. YouTube. N.p., 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Phat Philm Pt.2. YouTube. N.p., 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Stakeout. Prod. Joel Kowalski. Perf. Ben Marr, Patrick Camblin, Rush Sturges, Joel Kowalski. Vimeo. N.p., 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Stakeout Progression – (Kayak Session Short Film of the Year Awards 2013 – Entry# 7). Vimeo. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Pringles Summer Sessions - Dagger Jitsu. Perf. James Bebbington. YouTube. N.p., 17 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
"2013 Freestyle Kayaking World Championships." 2013 Freestyle Kayaking World Championships - Nantahala River - Bryson City NC USA. Nantahala Outdoor Center, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Jackson Kayak - Carbon. Perf. Nick Troutman, Dane Jackson. YouTube. Jackson Kayak, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
How did freestyle kayaking progress in just a few decades from simple vertical maneuvers in those long, classic, “old-school” kayaks to a competitive sport with difficult aerial maneuvers performed in boats nothing like their old counterparts? How did it evolve? As I have learned so far, it’s a great story to tell but a strange one to research. Scholarly documentation of this niche sport/form of recreation is nonexistent, and the bulk of my research has centered on continuing to build up my own knowledge of freestyle kayaking and boat design and in turn using that to analyze the type of documentation that there is plenty of: kayaker-produced media. From a number of old, shaky reels I’ve found posted online dating back to the early ‘80s to the abundance of action-packed, dubstep-infused kayaker-produced media of today’s freestyle, I’ve been attempting to trace the history of the sport in part through kayaking footage. I've also looked at the kayaks that companies were putting out on the market throughout playboating's history. The first thing I learned from both of these methods was that the story of the evolution of the sport must be told along with the story of evolution of the kayak itself, as the two are so closely intertwined.
There are, however, still some more concrete documentation sources from which to draw perspective in my research; kayakers have proved to be sufficiently introspective to make for the existence of a few kayaker-produced works I’ve found so far (in varying degrees of professionalism) that at speak at least in part to the evolution of freestyle kayaking. Potentially my greatest asset is yet to come – I am now reaching out to a number of professional kayakers I know, and also ones who I don’t, who have been involved with the progression of freestyle at varying points during its evolution. I expect that these interviews may prove to tie together the scattered information I have accumulated so far.
EVOLUTION THROUGH THE YEARS
The overall trend in the evolution of kayak freestyle has been a transition from the easiest, most primitive ways to get a kayak vertical in the water and basic front-surfing of stationary river features to going aerial with loop-based moves (referring to tricks that operate on the same principle as the loop to give the kayaker upward lift) in holes or with bunt-based moves (producing motion as one would with the basic blunt maneuver) on waves (Currents V2_7). Surfing of stationary river features has been present since the early 1980s (Kayak 03_4 19 Ottawa McCoys.avi) but I haven’t yet found any footage of freestyle kayaking in the 1970s; stationary play may very well have existed before the 1980s. Trends in this era show long, traditional-looking boats with few easily visible features differentiating them even as whitewater kayaks, let alone as dedicated freestyle boats, which wouldn’t come until well over a decade later.
My accumulated footage so far then picks up again with an edit made in the late 1980s (Whitewater Kayaking Ottawa Old School Style) that shows a strikingly similar scene to the paddling almost a decade earlier. Boat design has changed little, and while blasts were certainly popular during this time, the footage shows that surfing of large features was still primitive from today’s perspective with little more shown than front-surfing, side-surfing, spins, and uncontrolled carnage in the notorious “Phil’s Hole” of the Ottawa River. This footage makes clear quite visibly that boats still lack the capacity to handle in a hole of such magnitude as Phil's - very telling of design characteristics - and more generally that progression in freestyle hadn't yet reached the faster pace that would define the next decades.
Five years later there have been remarkable changes, as can be seen in footage of the 1994 Augsburg Rodeo (Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Lautes Edit and Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Langsames Edit), which shows top-level freestyle of the time. The rodeo marks the development of the “cartwheel era,” as vertical, cartwheel based moves are dominant in the hole; very few consecutive ends are thrown, though, suggesting that cartwheels are still "maturing." This development soon became realized. Just before the turn of the century, we see - along with a coinciding tapering of the ends of kayak's bows and sterns - the entrance into what I consider to be the golden age of the cartwheel. Top-level riders perform cartwheel after controlled cartwheel with few other tricks performed in video of the 1999 Canadian freestyle team trials (Canadian Whitewater Freestyle Team Trials). Clips of kayakers blowtorching the stern of a kayak to soften it and then running it over with a truck to make it thinner and “slicier” foreshadows greater volume reductions in the bow and stern soon to come. Evidence of this rapidly progressing trend is later evident in the large 2000 Ocoee Rodeo (Ocoee Whitewater Rodeo 2000), where the golden age of the cartwheel is seen in full swing. The boats are still fairly long, but boats used, such as the Dagger Ultrafuge, show marked volume reductions.
The next big leap in boat design comes in 2002, bringing freestyle kayaking out of the cartwheel era and into the aerial era with both loops and blunt-based moves appearing on the radar during this year; not only blunts but Pan-Ams, helixes, and even airscrews take the waves. A dramatic reduction in boat length is largely what is responsible for making these tricks possible (Chambly) (Phat Philm Pt.1) (Phat Philm Pt.2). 2001 preceded this with boats like the WaveSport EZ – kayaks that bridged the gap between boats like the Ultrafuge and more modern-looking 2002 designs like the Riot Techno – which marked the end of the “slicey boat era” (Kayak to Hell). Boats from this point on were still largely influenced by the cartwheel but would become increasingly tailored to maximum performance with loop-based moves.
My most current collection of footage picks up with 2010’s Stakeout kayaking film. (I have yet to fill in the preceding gap in time with footage but it is definitely possible.) Stakeout is known for being representative of progression in big wave freestyle. Here we see that the transition into the combo-move era has been made, as top professional paddlers perform sequences of moves on coinciding bounces as opposed to individual tricks. The film shows a clear difference between combo moves of 2010 and those of the most current paddling to date, as spins roundhouses, blunts, and backstabs are relied upon more heavily to give a move (most often an air screw or PanAm) its combo status (Stakeout). The progression in freestyle over the past three years since then is put in perspective by a number of recent kayak edits showing the world’s elite paddlers at their best on similar or identical river features to those in the original Stakeout. Most broadly, we see even bigger air and combos linking increasingly difficult moves. Combo sequences including a very technical move such as an airscrew might also contain up to three other tricks, and a recent trend seen most widely in 2013 is performing sequences that culminate in a highly technical move, as opposed to starting with them, as was most commonly seen in preceding years. Hole boating follows similar trends, with combo sequences based on newer loop-based tricks increasing in length, as well aerial maneuvers increasing in height at top levels (Stakeout Progression) (Pringles Summer Sessions) (2013 Freestyle Kayaking World Championships) (Jackson Kayak – Carbon).
Works Cited
*Currents V2_7: The Ottawa River. Vimeo. Five2Nine, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
*Kayak 83_4 19 Ottawa McCoys.avi. YouTube. PA Whitewater Challenger Crew, 18 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Whitewater Kayaking Ottawa Old School Style. YouTube. N.p., 30 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Lautes Edit! YouTube. N.p., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Canoe & Kayak Rodeo Augsburg Ca. 1994 Langsames Edit.. YouTube. N.p., 21 Nov. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Canadian Whitewater Freestyle Team Trials - Cepal 1999. YouTube. N.p., 06 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Ocoee Whitewater Rodeo 2000 (Pro Kayak Comp). YouTube. Shane Reynolds, 28 Nov. 2007. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
"History." Kayak to Hell. Kayak2hell, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Chambly. Perf. Steve Fisher. YouTube. N.p., 4 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Phat Philm Pt.1. YouTube. N.p., 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Phat Philm Pt.2. YouTube. N.p., 26 Feb. 2011. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Stakeout. Prod. Joel Kowalski. Perf. Ben Marr, Patrick Camblin, Rush Sturges, Joel Kowalski. Vimeo. N.p., 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2014.
Stakeout Progression – (Kayak Session Short Film of the Year Awards 2013 – Entry# 7). Vimeo. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Pringles Summer Sessions - Dagger Jitsu. Perf. James Bebbington. YouTube. N.p., 17 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
"2013 Freestyle Kayaking World Championships." 2013 Freestyle Kayaking World Championships - Nantahala River - Bryson City NC USA. Nantahala Outdoor Center, n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Jackson Kayak - Carbon. Perf. Nick Troutman, Dane Jackson. YouTube. Jackson Kayak, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.