Three kayaks, at left, and a triple Bidarka are in the makings
as recent workshop participants labor over the frames of their boats.
Rogers works on a kayak frame during one of his
boat-making workshops.
Mark Meisner of Manitowoc oils the coaming
(cockpit opening) of his triple Bidarka
Jim Kuch of Kalamazoo
Mich. begins sewing the canvas skin of his kayak.
When the work of boat-building is done, Mark Rogers unwinds with a
tune on his hand carved flute.
With a keen eye for detail, Mark Rogers, owner of Superior Kayaks
Inc., right, lines up the bow stem of a kayak during a recent workshop.
Behind him is a display of finished boats.
A measuring stick helps center the keel
on a Greenland kayak. |
WHITELAW - Mark Rogers is a stickler for detail.
"Try not to do that," the master
kayak builder tells John Mann as the retired air force chaplain yanks on
a knot of flax thread. "Every one has to be treated with respect. It's
a natural fiber and natural fiber tears if you don't do it right."
Mann isn't flustered by the admonition.
"He's a perfectionist. That's
why I'm here," says the Florida man who with friend Dana Decker drove some
1,200 miles to
Whitelaw so they could build - under Rogers' close supervision - their
own Greenland skin-on-frame kayaks using all natural materials and designs
that are thousands of years old.
They are among five students who
recently enrolled in the School of Traditional Kayaks, run by Rogers and
his wife,, Celeste, owners of Superior Kayaks Inc., 108 Menasha Ave.,
Whitelaw.
The Floridians had the opportunity
to take a kayak-building workshop closer to home, but decided to come here
because they heard Rogers was the best, Decker said.
"In the next millennium, I might
get the hang of it," mumbled Mann with self deprecating humor as he continued
to tie flax knots.
Flax "actually gets stronger when
it gets wet," Rogers explained patiently.
"He gives you so much more - not just how to build it, but the history
and tradition," Mann later confined.
"Mark is responsible for building
more skin-on-frame boats than anyone in the country," said his wife, who
cooks meals for the appreciative students and handles the company's books.
"This is definitely Mark's passion.
I'm just along for the ride," she said with a contented smile.
And what a ride it has been.
The Rogers's run between five
and six 9 1/2-day workshops each year, during which pupils build their
own kayaks from start to finish.
When he's not helping others construct
their own kayaks, Rogers is custom-building mahogany kayaks and traditional
Greenland paddles for his customers. His boats are so much in demand that
he is now taking orders for delivery in the year 2002.
Rogers, a former mechanical designer
from Bloomingdale, Ill., built his first canoe when he was 14. By 1979,
kayaking became his focus. Ten years later, he quit his job to go into
the kayak business.
To improve his commercial designs,
he turned to studying the ancient art of kayak making perfected by the
Inuit people of Greenland more than 2,000 of years ago.
The skin-on-frame boats, known
for their flexibility, were "hunting machines" used primarily to track
seals, Rogers said.
His pursuit of the ancient craft
lead him to Svend Ulstrup of Denmark, one of Europe's most accomplished
skin kayak builders. Like a sponge, Rogers soaked up all that Ulstrup had
to offer.
From the Greenland kayak, he moved
on to the art of making the Bidarka, according to an Aleutian Inuit design
more than 5,000 years old.
Although canvas has replaced seal
skins, the techniques and designs remain virtually unchanged.
No glue or nails are involved.
The wooden frames are held together with wood pegs and flax thread. The
natural fiber canvas is treated with linseed oil and chalk for waterproofing.
Instead of tape measures, Rogers
and his students gauge length and width using string as well as handspans
and armspans.
"We use a lot of hand measurements
because everything is built proportionately to the person," Rogers said.
"That makes a big difference to the person and his enjoyment and his ability
to paddle that boat."
The boat length is three times
the person's height; the width is his hip measurement plus two fists.
"If it fits right, it's like a shoe," said the 250-pound Decker, whose
Greenland kayak was noticeably wider than the one 160-pound Jim Kuch of
Kalamazoo Mich. was constructing.
Kuch, an artist and stay-at-home
dad, enrolled in the seminar in part because he needed a break from the
house and his two preschoolers, he said.
For the past four years he had
been using a plastic kayak that didn't suit him very well and found that
Rogers' Whitelaw workshop was the only place he could build a boat to fit
his body type, Kuch said "Every one is unique creation,"
Mann said. "There's no two alike
in the world."
Unlike Decker, a carpenter by
trade, neither Kuch nor Mann had previous building experience.
But that doesn't matter to Rogers,
who sets a pace that all can follow.
His pupils have ranged in ages
from 10 to 84. Rogers has even taught the art of kayak-building to adults
and children with learning disabilities. His greatest triumph was working
with a man who had dyslexia and had never before completed a project. The
experience gave the young man confidence to believe in himself.
This is a life-changing experience
... they just don't know it yet," Rogers said of his current crop of students.

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