Iconic paddlers: Dr Mike Jones
It is one of the eerier twists of kayaking history, noted by Blackadar biographer Ron Watters, that the two leading expedition kayakers of the 1970s were both doctors, who [...]
Iconic Paddlers
Iconic paddlers: Dr Walt Blackadar
Of all the paddlers in this series, none has a more singular or spectacular story than that of Dr Walt Blackadar, the gun-toting, vodka-drinking country doctor who started [...]
Iconic paddlers: Milo Duffek
After the Second World War, whitewater kayaking started growing exponentially in popularity, a rise that would peak in the 1970s, with the first Olympic Canoe Slalom in 1972, [...]
Iconic paddlers: Johann Klepper
In the same year that Gino Watkins died (1932) kayaking in Greenland, the sport of kayaking was well in the throes of its first great transformation, from finely-built wooden [...]
Iconic paddlers: Col HG ‘Blondie’ Hasler
By the late 1930s, paddlers in Europe had discovered the joys of running whitewater rivers but kayaking’s pivotal move, the roll, had yet to really take root. And although [...]
Iconic paddlers: Gino Watkins
Do you remember your first roll? Or, I should say, your first rolls, because there are a number of firsts in reality. The first roll, the first roll outside the warm clarity [...]
Iconic paddlers: John ‘Rob Roy’ MacGregor
Happy birthday the sport of kayaking. You are 152 years old this year (2017). What, you didn’t know? Well, it’s official. Kayaking, unlike many ‘sports’, can trace [...]
