R I V E R a l C h e M Y
Golden bo
y: jean-Pierre
Burny at the ’79
World
Championships.
PHoto Prijon ka
yaks
Born AgAin BoAts
SOMETIMES ALL YOU NEED TO RESTORE A DREAM IS SANDPAPER AND EPOxY
I HAVE EPOxY ALL OVER ME. On my hands, on ening pile of discarded boats. Are mine among My sloppy epoxy work won’t do it justice, of
my shirt, in my hair and on my tools. I am new to them, I wonder? I don’t remember where most course, but will fix a crack behind the cockpit—
this kayak fixing and I am making a mess. Sit still, of them went. the only sign of abuse. I’ve never done this
I tell myself, and it won’t get worse. In 1979, the Wildwater and Slalom World before—pored over a boat, examining, sanding,
I reread the container. Twenty minutes, it says, Championships were held in Jonquiere, Que- smoothing, keeping it fast—all before putting
before the fibre cloth is ready to apply. I force my- bec. It was a watershed moment in Canada’s it in the water. It is an exercise in patience and
self to sit and wait. Twenty minutes to think—to paddling history, as the who’s who of European anticipation.
recall all the boats I have owned and paddled. slalom and downriver racing competed in North The lineage of this craft since ‘79 is unclear.
Up to this point I have never held onto a boat long America for the first time. Racers like Gilles Zok, It has surely changed hands many times. The
enough for it to need fixing. Gisela Steigerwald, and Jean-Pierre Burny took military officer who passed the boat to me only
Sixteen, as best I can remember, is the num- home nearly all the downriver medals award- paddled it on flatwater, and he claimed its previ-
ber of kayaks I have owned over the past 20 ed that week, but left behind their boats to be ous owner in upstate New York left it for dead,
years. Considering my first five years were in a snapped up by Canadian paddlers hungry for buried in a garage.
Dancer, I’m embarrassed by my extravagance. cutting edge European race designs. My intentions are pure.
Some of them were gems, others junk—mere This boat awaiting epoxy on the garage floor As soon as the epoxy cures, I’m heading
blips in playboat evolution—conceived between in front of me, a magnificent Prijon Delphin 79 straight for a long, continuous class II section of
two great ideas. racing kayak cut of blended glass and Kevlar, whitewater. I’ve never been more excited.
Innovative leaps in design meant new boats won the world downriver title when I was still in Is this how Jean-Pierre Burny of Belgium, 1979
were produced every few months, often before elementary school. It is 15 feet long and a feath- DR world champion, felt at the top of the Jonqui-
the latest “new release” had even hit the water. erlight nine pounds of clean, sharp lines and ere course?
With a new dawn forever on the horizon, I joined slicing speed. Its hull is smooth and slender; the I wonder if somewhere someone is sitting in his
the ranks of polygamous playboaters, my loyalty deck is as thin as paper. The craftsmanship is garage, hands coated in contact cement, waiting
as flimsy as the marketing campaigns behind the beautiful, with a seamless transition to its dis- for it to get tacky so he can slap a new pair of hip
boats I paddled. tinctive flaring batwings just behind the seat. pads into my old Mr. Clean.
Playboating techniques progressed as rapidly Although its kind is seldom seen on the water
as the revolutionary designs, but hidden in ga- today, its elegance and radically different styling
JeFF JaCkSoN is a professor of outdoor adventure at algonquin
College in Pembroke, oN
rages and beneath decks grew an ever-deep- are difficult not to admire.
20 Rapid
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