Saturday, March 21, 2015

Kayaks through stamps

Well this was planned long back,but i could not post due to lack of time and finally i was determined and thanks to some inspiring friends and finally its going to come out.

What is kayak? A kayak is a small, narrow boat  primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic Inuktitut language, where it is the word 'qajaq'. In the UK the term canoe is often used when referring to a kayak .

Now the type of kayaks: "Sit on tops", as the name suggests, involve sitting on top of the kayak in an open area..."Cockpit style" involves sitting with the legs and hips inside the kayak hull with a  spray deck or "spray skirt" that creates a water resistant seal around the waist. "Inflatables" are a hybrid of the two previous configurations, these boats have an open deck, but the paddler sits below the level of the deck. "Tandems" are configured for multiple paddlers..

Ok now enough technical details...what about some stamps of kayaks?

One of my most favourite is 2011 ms of Greenland showing communication in Greenland..


 The first stamp shows a kay mail..Kay mail was the common way to transport mail
in the old days – this was, of course, as a supplement the dog sledge transport.The kay mail letters
were folded in a certain way so that they would fit into a kamik, the traditional Greenlandic boot.
A few of the kay mail letters, back from the 17th and 18th centuries, are preserved in private collec
tions today.During the 1950s and 60s, as motor boats were more common in Greenland, the need
for kay mail disappeared gradually. In 1994, POST Greenland printed a modern day kay mail letter
which was very popular. The last of these reprints were sold at POST Greenland’s booth during the fair “Frimærkeforum” in Roskilde in November 2010. I tried to find out an example of kay mail letter picture but was not successful.

Greenland issued several stamps on Kayaks in various years below are 2 of them engraved by master engraver CZ Slania..










Kayaks were very much used for fishing in northern regions.typically these kayaks shown in the stamps are "Cockpit style" . Like to share a nice postcard issued by Greenland post showing  Kayaking by a man..engraved from the painting drawn by Martin Morck in 2002



One of another stamp issued by Canada post way back in 1955 shows a man kayaking and on back ground on iceberg...the stamp itself is so cold....


When it comes to Kayaks its prominent in their mythology as well,the 2008 Nordic mythology MS
issued by GL post shows a kayak and a man and rocks.

The legend behind the myth is: The myth of the rocks,The Rocks is a less well known legend about a
kayaker’s meeting with the spirit in the rocks. The legend tells about the many adventures a traveller meets during his some times dangerous and long travels. In the legend it was urgent for the kayaker to row through two rocks before they collapsed around him. In the old days, the kayak was a very important property for a sealer in Greenland, so he could go catching or travel far. It was very important that the traveller was good at paddling and make turns with the kayak alone in order to get above water very quickly if he capsized.  If he came under water, it was
of vital importance to get above water as quickly as possible. Otherwise he would drown.Therefore it
was urgent for the kayakers to be such good kayakers that they could deal with any dangers they might meet.  When a sealer was out kayaking, he was usually alone, and therefore had nobody to help him when the danger was in sight.



Canoeing and kayaking have been featured as competition sports in the Summer Olympic Games since the 1936 Games in Berlin, although they were demonstration sports at the 1924 Games in Paris
Below is the stamp showing Kayaking as race issued by France in 1969


















The MS showing coastal life of Aland showing a canoe or a Kayak?i am bit confused here.

Enlarged for close observation:



Last but not least  1981 Falkland 15p issue commemorating 25th anniversary of Duke of Edinburgh's issue shows clearly a Kayak but the Specialized Heijtz  Falkland catalogue named it as Canoeing,may be as in UK they call it as Canoeing?



Sources: Wiki,Greenland Collector Magazine