Whats with the “need for speed”?

That was the question that popped up over dinner with my friend (the client of yesterday) when we were discussing boats. Of course dinner convo was about kayaks (and horses, her other favorite thing) since we both paddle water,,,,

Well, speed isn’t neccessarily about going fast, though that is the basis. Its about going with least effort really. And that was the point I had to hammer home. I can take any boat and move it at roughly walking speed using only my core and upper body power, but HOW LONG I can do that depends all upon the hull speed of the boat. Put me in a wide bodied, flat hulled hard chined recreational ‘kayak’, and I might be good for an hour, maybe two. But put me in one of my long boats and I can do that 3 to 3.5 all day, everyday, and actually get somewhere. With a bit more effort, I can go even faster and maybe pull myself out of bad situation: something the first boat would be sucked into uncontrollably. Same boats in less than ideal conditions: ie Wind and Waves, and ‘Fast’ becomes “WILL make it home alive”

The whole Idea of racing is to push limits in competition; to test endurance, increase efficiency, and improve breeds, everything else is ‘Fun’, but those three things are how our cars, planes, horses, US! evolve to better stronger faster more endurable forms. If your focus is to only float along and enjoy the scenery, you will enjoy, but never fully appreciate the years of skull sweat and failure that lead up to that creation you are riding in/on. I see it in forums on kayak design, how the trend is to ‘improve’ but the kayak designs keep coming back to the Inuit greenland style boats: A design ‘battle tested’ with 3000 years of hard conditions and hunting needs. That sort of R&D can’t be replicated with computer modelling or computer controlled flow dynamics models: those can only hone the edges, not temper the blade.

Even the slalom boats of old Whitewater days are based on the Inuit ‘interceptor’ boats. Those came to be when the Inuit started using rifles to hunt. They didn’t need to be as close to make the kill, but you needed a very fast and VERY manuverable boat to get the kill before it sank in the waves, AND it had to be able to ‘skip’ over debris in the water. Just like you want in white water racing. Modern white water boats are extensions of those, modified for certain conditions strictly. Put them in a lake and they are turds of a different stink, and can’t show their true colors, but on moving water can do things that defy common sense.

Seriously, That need for speed is one of the big things that separates us from the animals (even though we are separated by a very thin edge, that blurs when we start getting desperate,,,) You don’t see your house cat attempting to figure out a better kill method over their murder mittens,,, They are at their pinnacle and see no need to improve. Humans hit that pinnacle and start looking for ways to reach past it, or completely fuck it up so that it falls and ‘everyone is equal’,,,(but I digress,,,) Even in Horse racing, the improvements are in HUMAN controlled breeding methods, not horse driven desire.

Humans STRIVE (thanks to Sarah for the post, and to Mark Manson for the ‘don’t give a fuck’)

anywhooos,,, one of those Murder-mitten bearing “ultimate creation of evolutions’ has decided that my keyboard needs to be retired for a day and is insisting on ‘tentions! Ne-Owwww!!! and my train of thought went swoossshhhh,,,,,

more laters.