On Sunday, March 11, 2007, I entered my first Greenland qajaq rolling competition at the second annual Sarasota Kayak Festival in Florida. I paddled a Necky Chatham 17 and finished in second place in the festival’s Greenland Style Rolling Competition. Mark and Becky Molina were the judges.
There is a photograph of me afterward wearing the medal. There is another of me on the water in the yellow kayak, a wooden Greenland paddle resting across the deck. Together, they preserve a small but important chapter in my life as a paddler. The medal records a result. The boat, paddle, and people tell the longer story.
Learning with Mark Molina in 2006
The year before the festival, I took private instruction with Mark Molina. That instruction belongs near the beginning of this account because an award photograph can make a paddler look rather more self sufficient than he actually was. Nobody learns alone. There are teachers behind the skills, and their names deserve to travel with the story.
Mark had followed his own path into Greenland kayaking. “I never liked anything about kayaking until I saw what Maligiaq could do,” he told writer Conor Mihell. I took private instruction with Mark in 2006. Reading his account of being inspired to learn reminds me that the teacher in front of us has also been a student. Source: Conor Mihell, “Modern Greenland Kayaking: How Traditional Became Trendy,” originally published in Adventure Kayak, Early Summer 2006; online republication by Paddling Magazine, November 8, 2020.
My background in history and cultural anthropology gave me reasons to be interested in Greenland kayaking. Practice gave that interest something tangible. A paddle, a boat, and a recovery skill ask different questions when you are using them than when you are reading about them. I could study the history ashore, but I also wanted to understand something of the movement.
Thirteen rolls and a second place finish
The caption I published with my award photograph in 2008 records thirteen different Greenland rolls during the competition. It also names the boat, the date, the judges, and the second place result. I am grateful that I wrote those details down. Memory keeps the outline of a day; an old caption sometimes keeps the particulars we did not think we would forget.
This was my first competition in Greenland qajaq rolling. The result gave me a milestone to look back on, but it also sits within a much longer process of learning. A competition offers a defined occasion to demonstrate skills. Developing judgment on the water, and learning how to help someone else develop those skills, takes continuing work.
Receiving the award from Ranger Rick Storsberg
The award presentation was hosted by Sarasota County Parks and Recreation. I remember receiving an award, a certificate, and a check for placing second. In the photograph, I am wearing my medal as Rick “Ranger Rick” Storsberg hands me the award and prize envelope beneath the Sarasota County canopy. I have identified Rick through subsequent historical research.
The Friends of the Carlton Reserve preserve a “Ranger Rick” tribute gallery documenting Rick Storsberg’s connection with the reserve. Historical accounts also connect him with organizing the Sarasota Kayak Festival. His place in this photograph connects my own small milestone with the people who made these local paddling gatherings possible.
Seven surviving video records
My Liquid Rhythm Kayaking video archive identifies the following seven recordings as footage from the Sarasota competition on March 11, 2007. Their later upload dates are separate from the day they were filmed. I have retained the original YouTube links so that the recordings remain connected to their earlier public record.
- Armpit roll
- Crook of the elbow roll
- Standard Greenland roll
- Throwing stick, or norsaq, roll
- Reverse sweep roll
- Side scull
- Paddling upside down
These are historical recordings, not a complete lesson or a substitute for supervised practice. Their value here is that they preserve movement as well as names and dates. Photographs show who gathered on shore. Film lets a little of the day keep moving.
Continuing to learn: the 2012 Greenland Skills Workshop
My learning with Mark and Becky did not end with Sarasota. I also remember attending their Greenland Skills Workshop associated with the Charleston Kayak Meetup Group. The surviving event listing, preserved in my screenshot, is dated Saturday, June 2, 2012, from 9 a.m. to noon. That workshop belongs five years after the Sarasota competition. It is a separate chapter of continuing instruction, rather than part of my preparation for the 2007 event.
What I carry into teaching
Looking back, the most useful part of this history is the connection between being a student and becoming a teacher. I know what it means to seek instruction, practice a movement, and put that work before someone else’s eyes. I also know that a result from one afternoon does not finish the education.
“There’s never a bottom to learning,” Maligiaq Padilla told interviewer Jeff Moag. I recognize that feeling when I look at these photographs. The medal marked one afternoon; the learning kept going. Source: “Unfiltered: Maligiaq Johnsen Padilla,” Canoe & Kayak, May 2012, republished online by Men’s Journal on December 5, 2019.
In my own Greenland kayaking instruction, I want students to develop an understanding of the boat and their own movement, with room for patience, questions, and practice. The old photographs remind me to give credit to the people who helped me learn. The water still has a few lessons of its own, and it has never been shy about assigning homework.
Sources and historical notes
This account combines my personal recollections with original photographs and the award photograph caption uploaded to the Liquid Rhythm Kayaking Flickr account on October 7, 2008. That caption records the festival date, second place result, thirteen rolls, Necky Chatham 17, and Mark and Becky Molina as judges. It is my earlier personal record, not an independently issued results sheet.
The 2006 private instruction and attendance at the 2012 workshop are my recollections. The workshop date is visible in the saved event screenshot. Video locations follow the existing website inventory. My identification of award presenter Rick Storsberg is based on subsequent research, with the Carlton Reserve tribute gallery providing background rather than an explicit identification of this award photograph. Additional people in the group photograph remain unidentified in this account. Further background on my work appears in my professional biography.
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