Paddling Records

[mattdrayer]

Does anyone know which organization that keeps track of "official" paddling records? ICF, USA Canoe/Kayak, Guinness, NECKRA, NSPN , etc. I did see on the Guinness website that they have some records for accomplishments like fastest crossing of the English Channel. I'm wondering who would keep track of a record like, say, the first/fastest circumnavigations of the Isles of Shoals -- probably not Guinness material, but would be fun to see all the same.

Matt

[mattdrayer]

I did find this page on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_world_records_in_canoeing

[mattdrayer]

Most Eskimo Rolls in one minute (10):

http://recordsetter.com/search/kayak

[mattdrayer]

Kayaking records maintained by Guinness:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/Search.aspx?q=kayak

According to their FAQ, they only publish a subset of all records on the website, so there may be more.

[jason]

Most Eskimo Rolls in one minute (10):

http://recordsetter.com/search/kayak

I know a number of people that have done a lot more than 10 in a minute...

[djlewis]

I know a number of people that have done a lot more than 10 in a minute...

I know some who've done more with involuntary capsizes! ;-)))

[leong]

I know some who've done more with involuntary capsizes! ;-)))

But were they all successful rolls?

[Brian Nystrom]

Guinness is a bad joke, since they only recognize people who apply for "record" status and they do no independent research. For example, they gave British TV hostess Helen whatshername credit for the longest kayak trip by a woman for her drift down the Amazon with her camera crew, completely ignoring the fact that Freya Hoffmeister and others have done much longer trips. You really cannot rely on Guinness for anything except amusement.

[djlewis]

But were they all successful rolls?

Axiom 1: A capsize begins in an upright position

Axiom 2: A capsize ends in an upside down (non-upright) position.

Axiom 3: The only way to get from an upside down (non-upright) position to an upright position is to execute a successful roll.

Theorem 1: Let N be the number of consecutive capsizes you make. Then the number of successful rolls you executed is N-1.

Proof: By induction. For N = 1 capsizes, you executed, vacuously, N-1 = 0 successful rolls. Assume true for N = K, that is, whenever you have K consecutive capsizes, then you have executed K-1 successful rolls. Consider N = K+1 consecutive capsizes. After the first K of them, you have, by the induction hypothesis, executed K-1 successful rolls. By Axiom 2 you are also upside down (non-upright). Consider your (K+1)th capsize. By Axiom 1, you must have begun that capsize in an upright position. By Axiom 3, the only way to have gotten upright after your Kth capsize is to execute an additional roll, giving a total of (K-1)+1 = K successful rolls.

QED.

[mattdrayer]

Freya Hoffmeister and others have done much longer trips.

Absolutely, that's my point -- who maintains Freya's record, and who validates/updates the record when it's broken? Seems like just a general community consensus sort of thing. Someone reports to the press or a website, etc. that they're going after a record, they beat the record and tell the press, maybe have a book published, maybe put it on Wikipedia, and then it's "official".

In mountaineering, for example, there are all sorts of records being set and broken -- lots related to accomplishments in the Himalayans, first ascents, etc. Some of these are maintained in a specific register by Elizabeth Hawley, and even those who climb all 48 4000ft+ peaks in New Hampshire are recorded by the Appalachian Mountain Club, with a specific subset of those for winter ascents. If you say you summit Everest, for example, you can be assured that you'll have a meeting with Ms. Hawley the day you get back to Kathmandu and she'll grill you about the details.

I'm not trying to be nitpicky, I was just looking around to see if anyone was keeping track of achievements in the sea kayaking world -- and even what has been achieved thus far -- and found the resources somewhat lacking.

Matt

[EEL]

Absolutely, that's my point -- who maintains Freya's record, and who validates/updates the record when it's broken?

My personal view is who cares? I doubt the people out doing stuff do, or at least those who do it for the love of doing it.

Of course I no doubt have a twisted view on this.

I do agree it is nice to have some sense of the history of a sport and that requires some written record of what was done by whom and how, but I do not equate that with a list of "records".

Ed lawson

[mattdrayer]

I do agree it is nice to have some sense of the history of a sport and that requires some written record of what was done by whom and how, but I do not equate that with a list of "records".

I agree -- until someone looks at a particular accomplishment and says "I can improve on that" it's not really a "record", so to speak. Bringing back the comparison to the mountaineering world, a lot of the achievements aren't necessarily about being first or fastest, but more about completing a set of defined accomplishment(s), which can be done by anyone with enough skill, experience, and gumption (and also typically, money). For example, there are the aforementioned NH48, the Colorado 14ers, the 14 8000m peaks, the Seven Summits, and the lists go on and on.

Might be fun to start up some lists for sea kayaking circumnavigations and crossings and see where it goes