Exciting Facts about Kayaking – Interesting things you didn’t know about kayaking

Although the sport became popular recently as a recreational activity, the records claim that the kayaking was invented by Innuits 4,000 years ago. The name itself means something like 'hunter's boat' which in retrospect served that very purpose around the time when it was first conceived. Kayaking doesn't make much sound which makes it ideal for hunting.

If you are new to watersports, you wouldn't know that there are eight types of kayaks: each quite different. The shapes and speed each one renders differ, and they serve different purposes. For instance, long kayaks deliver great speed and are faster than the short ones. You'll come to see the differences yourself – seeing as the likes of Anantara Sir Bani Yas Island Al Sahel Villas set great store by the sport – if you are entertaining yourself with the activities in Abu Dhabi.

Though this is not advisable for beginners, you can actually kayak across the ocean. This is not a recent discovery either, the first person to ever have crossed the ocean in a kayak was Franz Romer – a German Kayaker – and he succeeded in this daring activity back in 1928.

Kayaking is seemingly simple, and it is, but its simplicity doesn't diminish the capability of it. In fact, kayaking was used in certain military activities. The lightness of the vessel and the stealth with which it can be used persuaded Canadian, British and U.S military forces to make kayaks their transportation mode.

Making a kayak in the 1500s was no simple task. The Innuits and other people used animal skin to build kayaks; the preference was the zeal skin owing its elastic quality.

Flatwater racing was the first water sport to take its place in the 1936 Berlin games, in 1948, the first women's paddling event was introduced. Kayaking games took its place in international contests gradually, and in 1972, the first white water race was introduced.

It may sound like a ridiculous idea, dangerous even, but it actually isn't any of those things. If you think rafting up a few kayaks is impossible, you should really look into the kayaking games in New York which took place in 2011 – 1902 kayaks were strung together, which took the world of watersports by surprise.

Kayaking is an appealing sport, especially because even a complete novice can take part in the sport. A beginner can have the extremity level reduced, but an adrenaline junkie can aim for the most extreme level. One interesting fact about kayaking is that you can do a waterfall drop while kayaking. You can kayak on the rapid waters and let the kayak fall over the edge into a pool of water – the highest waterfall drop was achieved by Tyler Bradt in 2009, and he jumped from a height of 189 feet over Palouse Falls.

This may sound like complete guesswork, but it isn't. There's a standard for the measurement of difficulty – kayakers use the international scale of difficulty to understand how strong the rapids are.