Bound for Nuuk: Meet Jon Raybuck

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TEAM QAJAQ USA EXPEDITION JACKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE at The Dubside Supply Company

GOFUNDME: SUPPORT TEAM QAJAQ USA'S JOURNEY TO GREENLAND

In this episode of The Dubcast with Dubside, Andrew and Dubside officially launch the new QAJAQ USA fundraising campaign to support the team’s journey to Nuuk for the 2026 Greenland National Kayaking Championships. They unveil the limited-edition Team QAJAQ USA expedition jacket, explain how supporters can help send the team to Greenland, and reflect on the deeper purpose of the trip: honoring, supporting, and celebrating Greenlandic kayak culture.

The featured guest is newest team member Jon Raybuck, who joins the show to talk about his background in traditional kayaking, his training for the championships, and why he sees the trip as both a serious athletic challenge and a rare cultural opportunity. Along the way, the conversation ranges from cold-water rolling and harpoon practice to gear, travel logistics, and Dubside’s insider perspective on the people and atmosphere of competition week in Nuuk. 

Transcript

[ANDREW]
Hello friends and welcome to the Dubcast with Dubside, coming to you from both coasts, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Great Pacific Northwest.

This is the podcast where we talk about the art of traditional Inuit kayaking, or as some affectionately refer to it as “Greenland style”. 

Well, I am really getting excited about this upcoming trip to Nuuk. How about you, Dubside?

[DUBSIDE]
Yes, Team Qajaq USA is going to do it. We are gearing up. We have, we're like six, seven people now, seven or eight?

[ANDREW] 
Possibly eight.

[DUBSIDE]
Anyway, it's a good solid number. And we've most of it got our tickets ready to go and everything. Competition goes to the 1st of the 10th.

[ANDREW]
And you will still be going to a number of events before that.

[DUBSIDE]
That is true. I am scheduled to go to TRAQS in Florida in less than a month, the end of this month, end of April. And so down there, I will be staying at Greg Stamer's house for a bit.

And Cheri Perry is scheduled to be there. And Adam Hansen from Aasiaat in Greenland is supposed to be coming. So I am setting a goal for myself to get Dubcast with Dubside special guest interviews with all three of those people.

We haven't heard from Greg in a long time. Cheri, I've never interviewed her directly, and Adam Hansen is a good guy to talk to. And there's other people down there I'll see if I can corner for an interview. So yeah, lots of work to be done there. 

Several weeks after that, I'll be heading out your way, Andrew, to go to SSTIKS once again.

We may do some interviews around the area. We'll see how that goes. We had a good road trip last year.

[ANDREW]
Yep. I still have video from that I need to publish.

[DUBSIDE]
I got a phone call on my answer machine just the other day from Rhonda Schwab saying that she had just recently found online interview we did and watched it. So yeah, that was cool to hear from her.

[ANDREW]
Did she like it?

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, yeah. Yeah, she did.

[ANDREW]
Okay, good.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[ANDREW]
Yes. SSTIKS will be Thursday, June 11th to Sunday, the 14th. So they added on an extra day, including Thursday.

[DUBSIDE]
And that is on the Columbia River near the, is it Portland? It's near.

[ANDREW]
Well, it's just across the border from Oregon. Still in Southwest Washington.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, it is in Washington. Okay.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. I volunteered again this year. I'm going to be helping with the harpoon class.

Henry Romer let me borrow a harpoon to practice with. And so I've been doing that. I had to make a harpoon holder, just a couple of wooden racks that slide under my bungees so I can keep the harpoon right on the gunwale.

[DUBSIDE]
That's called the Asagiikkut. That's a Greenlandic word, Asagiikkut.

[ANDREW]
Asagiikkut. Okay. Yeah. Good to know.

[DUBSIDE]
So you'll be geared up for Greenland to compete in the harpoon throwing, right?

[ANDREW]
I'm going to be focusing on the harpoon. Yep.

[DUBSIDE]
Good for you. So after SSTIKS, that gives us about, what, two or three weeks, and then we're heading to Greenland.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. It's going to come up pretty quickly. 

So thanks to all our listeners for all your comments. I just wanted to say that we really appreciate them. I also wanted to say that some people have been sending us texts through Buzzsprout, our podcast hosting service. Unfortunately, there's no way for us to reply to those texts.

So sorry about that. So if you happen to have a burning question that needs an answer to, it's best to send it through email to dubcastwithdubside@gmail.com. 

And the question that seems to be on everybody's mind these days is, when are we going to make the team jackets available?

Well, I'm happy to announce that the jackets are now available.

[DUBSIDE]
I got mine.

[ANDREW]
Looking good.

[DUBSIDE] 
I love it. 

[ANDREW] 
We call this the official Team Qajaq USA Expedition Jacket, Nuke 2026 Collector's Edition. This black Team Qajaq USA jacket marks the team's journey to Nuke Greenland to participate in the Greenland National Kayaking Championships.

Designed for both performance and everyday wear, the jacket features durable, weather-resistant construction and a clean, athletic style suitable for travel, training, and life around the water.

[DUBSIDE]
Got pockets too, with zippers on them.

[ANDREW]
On the left chest is the embroidered Qajaq USA logo. The right sleeve is embroidered with the words Qaannamik Unammersuarneq Nuuk 2026, commemorating the team's participation in the championship event. And a large printed Qajaq USA logo on the back completes the design with a bold expression of team identity.

It has a microfleece lining, cadet collar, and is water-resistant. This is the ultimate team jacket. This Nuuk 2026 Edition jacket is worn by members of Team Qajaq USA and by the supporters who helped make the journey possible.

Each jacket represents a shared effort to bring traditional kayaking enthusiasts from the United States to Greenland to take part in one of the world's most important celebrations of qajaq culture. Owning this jacket means being part of the team that helped send Qajaq USA to Nuuk. 

This is a limited edition, folks. After this year, we won't make any more. Next year, they'll probably be a different color. You won't get it in what I like to call “Dubside black”.

[DUBSIDE]
We would also like to thank, for making this whole effort happen, the recently stepped down president of Qajaq USA, Tony Schmitz. And he helped us get this underway through Qajaq USA helping us, so it's lots of appreciation there.

[ANDREW]
Yes. Many thanks to Tony. So you can find the team jackets at our online store, the Dubside Supply Company at thedubcaststore.logosoftware.com.

Now, since we only get a 15% commission from the sale of these jackets, we needed to set up a separate GoFundMe to establish an Expedition Fund to help defray the cost of our trip expenses.

[DUBSIDE]
So, the airfare to Greenland is not as much as it used to be. Although, well, I don't know if I can say that for sure. Anyway, it takes shorter time to get there, but it's still over a thousand dollars to get a round-trip ticket there.

And then in Greenland, there's a fee we pay to Qaannat Kattuffiat usually for the foreign team register. And then during the week there, there's food expenses, and there's accommodations before and after if you don't stay at the school, and some of us aren't going to stay there. And then there is to get your stuff from the airport into where you're going to stay is usually a taxi ride.

And there are other little incurred expenses along the way that crop up. So, it's hard for a guy like me to have too much money there or be able to afford it there, even though I'm used to living really cheap. So, we can use whatever help people have for us.

[ANDREW]
All our team members are buying their own airfare and paying for accommodations, although some might sleep at the school. But we still need to pay for Dubside’s travel expenses. And I can't imagine that groceries are very cheap there.

I mean, what's it like buying groceries there?

[DUBSIDE]
Well, I've been going for many, many years. And I'll have kroners instead of dollars saved up from before or something like that. So, in my head, I don't even change it over to what it would be in dollars.

I just know everything here is going to be expensive. And just if I've got 200 kroners in my pocket, and I want to buy some food, and it's going to cost me 50 kroners, then I'll buy that rather than figure out how much is 50 kroners and how much. But, you know, so it's all expensive.

Someday, I'll go to, I don't know what, Costa Rica somewhere where my dollar will go somewhere. But in Scandinavia and in Greenland, everything's expensive and you just have to deal with it.

[ANDREW]
And we're also planning on bringing some gifts for the Greenlanders.

[DUBSIDE]
And doing that means we have more stuff to bring, which will probably incur some extra baggage costs, which isn't cheap. So, that's another expense that we're going to have to deal with. So, we appreciate contributions in that regard.

[ANDREW]
This is going to be a historic occasion. The biggest American team organized to attend the competition. This is what I like to think is the cutting edge of the traditional kayaking, so-called Greenland style movement right here.

It's about going right back to the source of it all. This is what Qajaq USA has been about, really. We're forming a bridge between our countries.

And next year, another team will go. And it'll probably get easier.

[DUBSIDE]
We're not really focused on winning. It's not about, you know, being so good and being able to beat the Greenlanders. That's just irrelevant.

Just going there to compete and support them and help them celebrate their culture is the main idea. And in years past, people get fixated on, you know, how many medals did you get? How many gold medals did you get?

But you haven't heard us really talk about that because we don't care. Just being there and celebrating with them is what the whole focus is.

[ANDREW]
And this couldn't happen at a better time. When the Greenlanders are growing suspicious of Americans, we need to show them that we care about and respect their culture, that we admire it, and we want to understand it more deeply. So we could use all the support we can get.

If you agree with our mission, with the mission of Qajaq USA, if you've enjoyed this podcast, enjoyed our guest interviews, and enjoyed how we've evolved doing some more videos, then please consider making a contribution.

I mean, who else is out there on the internet supporting the traditional kayaking movement? This is a fragile niche community, so we  should support each other.

We have big plans for this trip. We're going to be documenting everything, doing more interviews, making some videos. My partner Katya will be going as the official photographer.

She'll be doing video as well. So her job is just to document everything. So expect some great photography to come out of this, and we will bring the experience to you.

But who would not want one of these jackets? Isn't it cool? I'll be going to be wearing mine on the plane.

Okay, so I'll put the link to our GoFundMe on the show notes. 

Now for the main event. Let's introduce our special guest for today's episode.

[DUBSIDE]
We have as a special guest today, one of our team members going to Greenland in July. His name is Jon Raybuck. And I've known Jon for a couple of times, several years at the various events.
 
And I can tell you personally, he's a very cool dude. So Jon, how's it going?

[JON]
Pretty good. Getting some mild weather here in New Jersey.

[DUBSIDE]
I thought you were up in the Minnesota area.

[JON]
So I started Greenland kayaking in general and Greenland kayaking specifically when I lived in Minnesota. And then about five years ago, we moved to New Jersey, which has made lots of people very upset. But you have to follow work.

It is what it is. So I brought my collection of kayaks into a much smaller garage here in central New Jersey. And I'm a little bit landlocked, so I don't get out and near as often as I'd like.

[DUBSIDE] 
Which town is that? 

[JON] 
Right next to Summit, New Jersey.

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, dude, I lived in Summit for like a year. 

[JON]
Oh, yeah? It's a nice town.

[DUBSIDE]
And took the train, the Erie Lackawanna train into New York to go to the audio school I was going to back in 19... 1980? I know all about...

So you say you're near Summit? What's the town?

[JON]
Yeah, we're the next town over in New Providence. 

[DUBSIDE] 
New Providence, yeah. New Providence, yeah. Next one on the train line going in. Yeah, I know.

[JON]
Yes, it is, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
I know exactly where you're at. All right, cool. Very cool.

[JON]
Yeah. So I was just out actually this Saturday morning at dawn into the Wachung Reservation. Has a mile-long little...

[DUBSIDE]
Oh, yeah. The Wachung Reservation. I remember that.

[JON]
Called Lake Surprise. So I was in there to check out my cold weather gear in anticipation for Greenland, because I know I don't have a lot of cold weather left here in New Jersey.

And I wanted to see how well my dry suit worked with my tuilik and check out the gaskets and scope out my gloves and do some stuff. It was about 28 degrees in the air that morning. So it was pretty...

It was good weather for that.

[DUBSIDE]
When was this?

[JON]
Saturday morning.

[DUBSIDE]
Saturday, okay. Yesterday was Wednesday, and the day before that was Tuesday. And where I'm at in Virginia, it hit about 80 degrees.

[JON] 
Yeah, we had that too.

[DUBSIDE]
You felt it? Okay. 

[JON] 
Yes, yes.

[DUBSIDE]
I went out camping overnight near where I'm at, and it was awesome. 

[JON] 
No mosquitoes yet? 

[DUBSIDE] 
Correct. Yeah, the best part.

[JON] 
Yeah, that's nice.

[DUBSIDE] 
Yeah. It was very cool.

[JON]
Yeah, we had... It was 30 degrees on the ground Saturday morning. About the same on Sunday.

And then our high... I forget if it was Monday or Tuesday, but the high was almost 80.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[JON]
So we're getting some kind of crazy weather going on here right now. It's spring.

[DUBSIDE]
So what's your takeaway from rolling in cold water?

[JON]
I, to be totally honest, I'm very much a fair weather kayaker.

[DUBSIDE]
All right.

[JON]
I like to go out for a mild couple hour paddle and then roll for maybe a half hour. That's my favorite thing to do. And it's most comfortable when the conditions are nice and easy.

Don't need a tuilik. Don't need a dry suit and go out when it's warm. Do I get that all the time? No. And with two small kids in the house and a little bit landlocked where we are in New Jersey, I don't get out nearly as much as I should.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. But in terms of just like hitting the water when it's that cold and doing the roll, like in the...

[JON]
It's fine. Eventually I'll get a brain freeze. You know, that weird one that comes in through the top of your sinuses instead of the back of your throat. But I've been out in pretty cold water in Minnesota many times in spring.

[DUBSIDE]
You know, if you have in Minnesota, yeah, you'll... In Greenland, you'll adjust to it.

[JON]
Yeah. I assume the water's colder there than Minnesota's.

[DUBSIDE]
It's cold. It depends. Well, Nuuk isn't as bad as Ilulissat or Sisimiut, but it's still cold.

And it depends on if it's a sunny day. You know, when you come up, you get a little bit of a refresher there. If it's like rainy and windy, which it may be, and they'll still have the rolling competition, that makes it a little bit tougher.

[JON]
Yeah. 

[DUBSIDE]
We'll have a good time.

[JON]
I need to get my gloves sorted out better. What I currently have on, not have.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah. You know, actually, the three of us right here might be on a rolling team.

[JON]
Could happen. I have my travel set up for the 30th through the 8th, which, according to the schedule they just released, means I don't know that I'll be there for the team rolling, which I'm kind of upset about. But I don't know if I can pull four more days to fly out. Those flights are pretty tight.

[DUBSIDE]
I didn't know you might be leaving as soon. All right.

Well, yeah, we can handle that.

[JON]
Apologies for that.

[DUBSIDE]
It's Greenland, you know. We can handle anything. Whatever happens is what we handle.

[JON]
Yeah, that's fair. And I'm a late addition to the team. It took a little while to free up travel in the household.

The two small kids disappearing for a week or more in the middle of the summer is kind of rough. It's tricky.

[DUBSIDE]
We appreciate the dedication there. It's good to have you along.

[JON]
Thank my wife for that. 

[DUBSIDE] 
All right.

[ANDREW]
So what kayak are you using to practice with?

[JON]
Right now, I have a Waterfield Trans Am, which is their, I think, their biggest one. It's about a 20-inch beam, almost 18 feet long. That's my favorite one.

It's fiberglass, which is convenient. It's not as Greenland as my skin-on frame is, but I can hand-roll my Waterfield easier. So I prefer that one in my Greenland skin-on frame, which is what got me into this, really.

I got used off CraigsList from a guy in Independence, Iowa, Jim Jorgensen, if you're out there. Howdy. Thanks for the kayak.

But I got that. He threw in a paddle. That was my introduction to Greenland kayaking.

So I really jumped in both feet forward, because it's an ocean combing, and got into it. Eventually, through that, I hooked up with the local sea kayakers in Minnesota, and they got me kind of sorted out, so I wouldn't kill myself. And then, eventually, I also found a local Greenland rolling mentor.

And so the first summer I was in that kayak really using it, I also learned layback roll, forward finishing roll, storm roll, pick those things up. I like it a lot. It's fun.

[ANDREW]
A Waterfield kayak, I've seen one of those before. How do you get a hold of one of those?

[JON]
I want to say there's literally dozens of us, but that's an overestimation of how many of those kayaks are in this country. I know about two or three of them. I don't know how to get a hold of one.

Supposedly, there was a dealer in Florida at one point, but I don't know. It's not a Tahe. It's much more kind of banana-shaped and sculpted.

So it doesn't roll as good as a Tahe. I think it paddles a little bit better in dynamic water. But without a skeg in it right now, it's kind of, he's tricky to manage.

So it's a very Greenland-style fiberglass kayak. Very light.

[ANDREW]
Where do they come from?

[JON]
They're from Japan.

[ANDREW]
Yeah, okay, that's what I thought.

[JON]
The fact that there's any here is kind of amazing.

[ANDREW]
Yeah, that is amazing.

[JON]
There's a handful. Mike Hamilton has a slightly smaller one of the same design, just a little bit smaller that he brings to Delmarva, and that thing rolls like a dream.

[ANDREW]
Is it a keyhole cockpit or an ocean cockpit?

[JON]
It's an everything I have is an ocean. I've got a Greenland. I've got a Dwarfen Yostworks folding kayak that needs a new skin on it.

But I have everything. It just needs time. I've got a Pintail, a very like a ’98 Pintail.

That's like my blue water kayak that doesn't get used very often. My Greenland and my Waterfield and everybody, everyone's an ocean combing. They all match.

So my gear fits across all of them. Not the most convenient thing. A keyhole might be nice, but I'm not used to them at all.

So I would not get one. I'm like, I don't know if I can roll in that or not, but what if I fall out?

[DUBSIDE]
So Jon, are you more going to Greenland for the experience? Are you really focused on the competition or where are you at?

[JON]
I think I'm more going for the experience. The fact that it's in Nuuk this year is a huge, like I'm 20 minutes from Newark airport. So this is like, this is incredibly convenient for me to be totally, I'm like, oh, it's so convenient to go to Greenland.

But it really is. So like it's very much chance. 

Um, I am not going to seriously compete at the same time, attending something like that and not taking it serious, doesn’t seem right to me.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah.

[JON]
Um, so I'm really investing in like my training for that event so that I can get a decent score.

[DUBSIDE]
That's, that's a good attitude.

[JON]
I just ordered some ropes that I think are getting delivered right now, possibly. So like, I'm, I'm taking it pretty seriously. Um, because that is, this is their culture. We really celebrate and respect that. So I think it would be the wrong move to show up and just hang out and not really try to do well.

[ANDREW]
So it sounds like you're going to plan to compete on all the events.

[JON]
Yeah, I'm, I'm definitely willing to, I, my, I'm terrible on ropes. I'm going to be honest with the world about that.

[DUBSIDE]
We'll work on that.

[JON]
Yeah. I'm not great at throwing a harpoon. Uh, I'm not terribly fast on my rolls could be better. I can shore my rolls up and I think I could break a hundred for a score. I'd be pretty happy with that.

[DUBSIDE]
People, they'll have a list and who signs up for what and everything. Well, people change that all the time. So you can, you can say you're going to do everything, but I certainly wouldn't hold against you if you bagged out of the portage race.

[JON]
That's like, that's a rough one, especially with, I don't know what, I don't know what we'll have to work with there.

[DUBSIDE]
I think I've only done that once and going to the competition like 20 times. Yeah. I wouldn't, that's, that's some work.

[ANDREW]
Did you use your FeatherCraft for that?

[DUBSIDE]
I did. Yes. It was heavy.

[ANDREW]
Um, Jon, tell me about your training for harpoon throwing, because that's one event that I'm interested in.

[JON]
That's something that I like. If I go out for a long, like a nice size paddle, I'll take a harpoon with me, throw it on the front deck. I think it's entertaining to paddle around with like, you know, a storm paddle and norsaq and a harpoon on the front deck of your kayak.

It's a nice conversation starter if you bump into anyone. And then you can get a few throws and work on it. But like consistency for me is not that great.

Most of the harpoon work I do is at Delmarva once a year. And I, to, to feel good competition wise, I need to pump that up. But the trick there is just getting out, getting out and throwing.

I don't think I need to do any like weightlifting or any, they don't weigh that much. I just don't want to hurt my shoulder throwing it. And I want to get okay distance, maybe accuracy and a nice arc.

[DUBSIDE]
Depending on how seriously we want to take it, bringing your own harpoon is, is recommended if you really want to put on a good showing.

[JON]
Yes.

[DUBSIDE]
Borrowing one is, yeah, it's, it's different. And if they're, if they're continuing with the current state of rules, it's one try for distance and one try for accuracy. If you blow that one, yeah, that's, that's...

[ANDREW]
That’s it? 

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah!

You didn't hear me? I haven't said that before? That shocked me the last time and the time before that.

Yeah. Cause it used to be, you know, three for each one, you know, you could mess up one and still get it. But yeah, one try, it makes it much easier to run the event and much easier on the judges.

But for the competitors, it's, oh, yeah, that's, that's tough. But that's, they may, maybe they've had complaints and they changed it back. I have no idea, but that's, be ready for one shot and don't mess it up.

[JON]
That's, that's rough.

[DUBSIDE]
That's why borrowing a harpoon and having not even thrown it before, taking like two practice tries. You, you, yeah, that's, I, I totally blew my, my two, my one distance, one accuracy was, was it last year or the year before I can't remember. But anyway, that's...

[ANDREW]
Okay. So what's a good distance for throwing a harpoon?

[DUBSIDE]
Well, you have to, you have to be coasting forward. But there's no requirement of how fast you have to coast forward. And so, so people like, like you want to get, there's a line and your body can't cross the line, you know, you have to throw it before that happens.

So people, so, so you're trying to time it so like, you know, you can be paddle, paddle, paddle and just put your paddle down and grab the harpoon and throw it just before you cross the line. But people, you know, you paddle, paddle, paddle and you, and you're coming forward and you pick up the harpoon and you're waiting. It's really slow.

It doesn't look like a really slick seal hunter would do it, but that, that still complies with the rules. And of course, the harpoon has to land point first, you know, because if you go this way, here's the seal, you go this way, the seal just ducks, you're not going to get a seal. But the way the rule is, you know, it can be this way point first, which is really not going to get you a seal, but that counts.

But as long as it doesn't flop like that. So they're liberal with the rules. Um, distance wise, let's see the, if you can get, you know, 15 or 20 feet, that's cool.

I mean, the top men, they're doing like 50 feet or so. They count in yards, but you know, but just if my experience is, unless you really practice a whole lot, if you really try to give it everything you possibly can, you'll mess it up and it'll fall off. So you just, just try to get some good momentum through it.

And, and, you know, and, and like Maligiaq is always big on, you know, you, you, you need to like use your whole, they're, they're all, we'll say that you need to use your whole body, not just your arm. Maligiaq, the video's out, you'll see him. He does this thing, like he pumps, he goes… and then he throws it, which I haven't seen anybody else do that, but that, that's his little thing.

And then they throw new rules at you also as well. They had one year, somebody decided, somebody in charge decided that you cannot let the tip, the back end of the harpoon touch the water when you move them back to throw.

And I remember, Maligiaq said, “Wait, wait, that's, that's, you get the momentum, but if it touches back there, what's the big deal?”

But they suddenly decided, well, now you have to do it that way, and guys are getting disqualified that thought they had it, and I don't know. And then the other one was, if I get this right, you have to, you're holding the paddle horizontally in front of you, across the, to your front.

Well, you know, when you, when you stop paddling, you put one hand on it, and you hold, put it down, and then you must reach over the paddle to pick up the harpoon. If you reach under the paddle to pick up the harpoon, when you, when you bring it back to throw, you'll be throwing, and nobody throws a line on the harpoon, because it would just make it too difficult, but if you were, the line would be going over, over the, the paddle, and then the animal pulling it would, it would tangle the paddle in. So you see how, like, if I'm reaching over, over the harpoon to pick it up, then here's the line, and I throw it, and then the line goes, it's over my paddle.

Which, if I have the paddle, and I'm reaching, I got that right, under the paddle, no, no, I have to reach over the paddle, because then I throw it, then there's, the line is going with it. If I reach under the paddle, then when I throw it, the line comes down over top of the thing. If, you know, if you can visualize that.

But there were people who always were used to just reaching the wrong way, getting disqualified, and making a big fuss about, wait, but then the one, it was Elias, who had, because he had been really studying how the seal hunters really do it, they might have found some old seal hunters to talk to, and said, no, you've got to, you got to reach over the paddle, so that when you, when you throw it, the line will be over, beyond the paddle, and not caught in the paddle.

[ANDREW]
Hmm, interesting.

[JON]
That makes sense, it's something we don't think about here very often, but obviously, like, if you're really hunting, then you've got a line attached to it, and you need to worry about line management on top of everything else that's going on.

[DUBSIDE]
And apparently, they, they, they heard from some, I mean, all these old seal hunters dying off rapidly, but somebody had said that it was a, the seal hunters they talked to, it was a really big deal, the guy said, you always throw to the right of the kayak, you have to keep the seal over towards the right, because if you throw over, if you're right-handed, if you throw over to the left, that, the seal will pull the kayak over, you know, it's easier to get tangled up in things, so it's got to be over to the right. And he said, and he would say, you know, him and all the seal hunters back then would never, never throw across over the kayak, because that would get things to that, but when you're, for, for target thing, they're not looking at that, but.

[ANDREW]
I started practicing with a harpoon, and I borrowed one from Henry Romer. I didn't want to make one on my own right away, and I kind of needed to see one, so that I would have a template to copy. And I'd never thrown a harpoon from a kayak before, but definitely it's added complexity compared to just throwing it on land, which we often do at these events.

And one thing that Henry told me was, you never throw a harpoon without throwing it at a target. And I guess the idea is that you're always calibrating your guidance system. You're not just throwing it randomly.

So I decided one thing I could do is I would bring a Frisbee with me and stick that under my bungees, and then I'd throw the Frisbee and then target the Frisbee. And that way I don't have to go set up a target somewhere and retrieve my harpoon and go back and forth all the time. I could just paddle along a shoreline, keep throwing the Frisbee and, and keep trying to hit it.

And that, uh, seems to work well.

[JON]
We've got a set of seals that we made for Delmarva the other year. Um, and it's just like, you know, the, like Jersey material, like gym bag type stuff. The gym teacher would have like all the dodge balls in or whatever.

They're just those with a pool noodle wrapped in a circle inside of it. And then you tie the line to a rock or something as an anchor. And then it sits there and gives you like a, you know, about a foot and a half size target floating on the surface of the water.

That's visible from a decent distance.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. Okay.

[JON]
Still stationary. That way you get a, you get a circle back and forth around them, but they work. Okay.

[ANDREW]
Yeah. Jon, you said you learned from Sipke.

[JON]
Yeah. Originally. And I've, I've hung out with Henry at Delmarva too.

[ANDREW]
Okay.

[JON]
Yeah. Or that, that same, uh, “firing computer” hypothesis for you. You should always be throwing at something. Uh, otherwise you're, you're not training your brain properly. Which makes a lot of sense. 

And I think the most interesting thing about the harpoons is without that, we would not have the kayak that we know.

Like it is a hunting device. It is, it is a craft that is built to support that haunted tool. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to embrace all the other things that go along with Greenland kayaking and ignore the harpoons that would have been the driver for everything else.

[ANDREW]
Exactly. I mean, it puts, it puts rolling into a whole different perspective when you, you know, realize, oh, when, when I'm, um, leaning well, when the target is not right in front of my kayak, when it's off to the side, I may capsize on this side. And if I do capsize throwing harpoon, you know, what's my first move to, uh, recover from that?

So it puts everything in a, it puts everything into a different perspective.

[JON]
The really, the difficult kind of rigorous Greenland rolls, uh, it, it forces you to learn a lot about like where your body is under the water and think about the dynamics and the position of everything that's going on. Uh, and I don't, I don't know if you get that just learning like a single, a single recovery roll and not practicing it thoroughly or not, you know, not learning all the different variety of ways to come back up. Cause if you're, if you're under the water and the line is wrapped around this way or that way, or there's lots of dynamic elements in the water.

Although all the practice we do helps to, to manage those crises.

[ANDREW]
So what rolls are you working on now? 

[DUBSIDE]
And tell us the answer in Greenlandic.

[JON]
Yeah, that's, I don't have my key open and that's something I'm trying to work on in the next couple of months is my knowing the names for everything. Um, but there is a forward finishing behind the neck that I've been working on for a couple of years now. I've had it in the past and lost it, um, through my own negligence.

And the variety of norsaq Jons, uh, norsaq, a layback roll is no problem, but I want to make sure that I've got a solid offside and a front to front norsaq roll would be nice. Uh, the reverse to front norsaq roll has always been difficult for me to attain. Uh, but with, you know, we weekly practice, uh, for a few months, I could probably get myself trip back up, actually do some stretches.

[ANDREW]
So how did you first get interested in the traditional kayaking?

[JON]
Um, so me and my wife were moving from Portland, Oregon to Minnesota and having, having visited Minnesota in the past. I'm like, well, we got to get, we need a canoe. You can't live in Minnesota without like a nice Wenonah or something.

Um, so I started stocking kind of that, that sort of like that size craft, uh, on stuff, you know, this is years ago. So, you know, back when Craigslist was more functional than it is nowadays. Um, just stalking those and look at the different designs and learning about them.

I'm like, oh, I could actually, I could build my own canoe. Look at these cool skin on frame designs. And then from that, I started to learn about skin.

And so I like discovered skin on frame craft and then discovered Greenland kayaks as another variety of that. It kind of fell in love with the beauty of them and then just continued to stalk. And I've yet to build my own.

I've got a frame hanging in my workshop. One of my requirements for a house is I have 20 feet of like wood workshop space so that I could finish my kayak. Uh, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of them that need a home out in the world.

Um, so if, if you want one, you can, you can find a used one that's already been loved. It needs a little bit of care. Um, you don't have to build your own.

Will it fit good enough? Who knows? That's all up in the air, but it'll probably fit better than a, a giant fiberglass bathtub that you might get otherwise. Um, so yeah, I, I got one in Minnesota, found it used, it came with a stick. Um, and I've been paddling sticks ever since every now and then I try a Euroblade and they just feel like a grocery bag on a stick to me.

[DUBSIDE]
Well, I can share with you some of the key people that we'll be running into there. If you'd like to, uh, yeah, do that. All right.

So this, this is Pavia Tobiasen and he's been involved in kayaking for many, many years. So he was, he, he was dormant for a while, but he's back into it now. Um, so he, he's, I think he, he may have had the top rolling school at one time, but he's, he's not fully practiced really now.

But anyway, his, his wife is Johanne. She's the, the president of Qaannat Kattuffiat. And she can speak a little bit of English.

Pavia doesn't speak, well, sort of English, but not, you have to, you can't assume that what you said and he nodded his head, he really understood. But they're, they're, they're, they're cool folks.

And they have, they have two sons and the son Ujarneq is the older one. He's like 21 or 22 now. He won the championship the last two years in a row.

He's looking to make it a third. So that way he gets to keep one of the trophies instead of having to give it back. And he's got a younger brother named Sinni Tobiasen.

And Sinni, I, I can't even tell these two guys apart. They look the same to me. But, um, Sinni, Sinni, I think he set a new rolling record last year, over 300 points.

It's because he practiced rolling harder than Ujarneq did. Then we have, this guy is named Jesper. He's a Danish guy.

He's been living in Greenland. He speaks English quite well. He doesn't speak total Greenlandic, but you know, he's, he's, he'll probably be around.

I think he's from Sisimiut. Good, good guy to know. You may see him there.

And then, and Jon David from Norway is coming again this year. Jon David set the all-time rolling record, um, and did very well on the ropes and did very good racing, everything. So it'd be interesting to see what, how good he's doing this year.

Um, so this is Tanja Olsvig. And Tanja has gotten re-involved again. Um, she was, wasn't there for a while, but she, she was in, um, Michigan training camp one time.

She, she speaks English. Good person to know. Very, very cool person.

She, she's got pretty good rolling skills. She, last year, she kind of messed up the rolling. She was very unhappy with herself, but she does, uh, she, she does, you know, probably top of the, top of the heap for the women's rollers.

And this is Inutsiaq. And Inutsiaq, he's what, maybe 20 years old or something like that. He can speak English pretty well.

He's a nice, nice kid. Um, so he's good, good resource to know. Um, and then Aminguaq is also, she's been very involved in the new club.

She can speak English very well. So good, good person to know. She won the, the championship, um, what, two years ago or something like that.

She kind of got lucky on some things, but, uh, she's, she's, uh, quite active in the club. Good person. And it's Jakob Peter Enoksen goes way back.

He, he won the title a couple of times. He was the president, vice president. I don't think he's competed as strongly now, but he'd be right.

He doesn't, doesn't really speak English too much. Um, but good guy. 

And this is Ungaaq. Ungaaq is the brother of Pavia Tobiasen. The first guy I was talking, showed you. And Ungaaq can speak English somewhat better, better than Pavia.

You can talk to Ungaaq. He's, he's pretty cool. He's also fond of playing guitar.

He'll sing some Greenlandic songs on occasion. 

And this is, Ivinnquaq is the sister of Inutsiaq. Inutsiaq was the guy who could speak English quite well.

He's a good, good guy. And his sister, Ivinnquaq, she won the title the last two years in a row, I think. I can't remember. Anyway, she, she does not really speak English, but you'll see her around. 

And then we have Abel Jakobsen is from Qajaq Qaqortoq, as you can see from his jacket there. And Abel, he, he, he came to the U.S., I think he's been here twice. Doesn't, he was at Delmarva and he was at TRAQS. He doesn't speak English too well, but he's, he's the, uh, the head guy of the Qajaq Qaqortoq. 

And this is Ari Josefsen. He's been involved many, many years. He's won the title a couple of times. He'll be around.

He can sort of speak English, not a whole lot of English, but he's a really cool, funny guy. I've known him for quite some time. 

And, uh,Karl Peter, he's the, the top Greenland Ropes guy.

And he was, he had a, he's had kids recently, so he wasn't as involved. He's back again this year and he can, he, he's learned some English in the meantime. I've been seeing it for years and he can start to talk to him now.

He's a cool dude. And he, his wife is Pia Jensen, who's been involved for many, many years. 

So, um, that, that'll do it for the people. If I gave you more, you just forgetting who they are. Anyway, those, those are some, uh, some ideas. 

And then coming into Nuuk, Nuuk airport, big new airport there.

You fly in there and then, so here, here's the club at Nuuk. Clubhouse. The museum is just off to the right, up, up above there.

You can see it's a hill. There's a road up there. You have to go up a pathway to get to the, up there.

So we'll be up there to the right. In fact, that, that black house there on the right, that could be the house we're at. I'm not sure.

There could be just a down the road a little bit, but we'll be in that area. And you see how the, the containers, um, there by the club are different clubs. The other clubs from other towns will get their containers set in there with all their kayaks in them.

So here you have the, their, their stuff is in there. Some of these are the more other, other stuff, not all the kayaks in there, but anyway, that's, that's how that works. And then on coming up out in front of the, the club there is this, this dock, a big tall dock, cause it's like a 10, 12 foot tidal range. So the water goes way up and way down. And those steps there right out from the club, you can load in on those steps or you can load in this farther over. 

So this is looking at the club just on the left there, farther down there, there's tracks that go down into the water that don't really go to a warehouse or anything, but that that's to, to the look in that, in that direction.

And so here's the, the rail there from the other direction, you see that church in the background up there. And, and so people will watch all along the rail there when the, and the races and the rolling, everything is done right off, off of the, the, uh, the coast, the shoreline right there. 

And then this is looking farther that same way from before that you see that church there and you can see under that yellow building, there's a kayak rack there. So all the kayaks and storage are just left there throughout the year. And probably if, if, uh, Tim Gallaway's kayak is still around, it's, it's probably on that rack somewhere. 

And then the, to the right of that, you can't quite see, there's some posts in the ground.They, they, they'll set up the ropes there, but they don't use that for the competition ropes because nowadays they do the, the ropes in, indoors, but you can practice there. The ropes are usually like sagging, you have to retie them again, but you can see the, the tide here will go out like that. And then it'll all come right up to about where those kayaks are when it gets higher.

So these rocks get alternately exposed and unexposed. And now the icebergs, you'll see an iceberg or two floating out in the fjord, but you don't see like the huge, you know, tons of icebergs like you do in Ilulissat or Aasiaat. But we'll have, you know, icebergs here and there a little bit.

And then in the main drag of the street, there's the big Hans Egede Hotel, which has cost big bucks to get a room there. And there's a, there's a big food market just to the left of this shot. And on the, on a good weather days, people come out and set up their little stands and be selling, you know, whatever household goods they've got, or maybe some food they made or something, some handicraft things.

So you can always look for good deals. I scored a guitar once on, on the street here by a guy who was unloading it. 

And then farther down from that, there's the cultural center, the Kutak, or Katuaq it's called, and this is, they'll do, they'll have performances in there.

There's a cafe and things in there. I think nowadays with all the influx of tourists, they want to charge you money. Tourists have to pay just to go in and look around.

Locals are, are, are welcome to, to do that. So they've kind of restricted, because you've got all these gawking people with cameras get kind of annoying. 

And then farther down the street from that, this building here, which is originally, I guess, a house, that is Atlantic Music, which I've talked about many times in the podcast.

And inside you can buy your guitars and things, as well as the CDs that they hardly make anymore because nobody's buying CDs. But, and then there's a big, huge sports hall with a soccer field out front of it. And that sports hall that we may be doing the ropes in there.

Some years they've done that, lots of space. They put up all these big framework and have multiple stations, but some years they don't have the use of that if it's scheduled for something else. So we can't, I can't say for sure we'll be in there or not, but we might be.

And then you can see the sports hall there in the, in the, below the mountain there, but that, that mountain is the iconic Nuuk mountain range. There's a name for it, Sermitsiaq or something like that. So from all over town, you could see that, you know, you're in Nuuk when you see that, that unique shape right there.

So there you have a brief little tour of Nuuk. They're building new stuff there all the time. So it's, it's, yeah, hard to keep up.

[ANDREW]
This is going to be great. It's going to be a historic occasion. The biggest Qajaq USA team ever to go and participate in the championships.

[DUBSIDE]
And the first Qajaq USA team to come with team jackets. 

[ANDREW]
There you go! 

[DUBSIDE] 
I'm all about the jackets.

[ANDREW]
Absolutely. And you got your jacket too, right, Jon?

[DUBSIDE]
Yes. All right. From two different events I've been, I've gone to, I can't remember which ones.

From the auction tables, I grabbed kayak, two Qajaq USA hats, like the red and white ones with a nice thing that I'm intending to take to Greenland. Although we'll see. Nowadays, you know, we'll see if they, if they would like to have something that says Qajaq USA on it or that USA thing's a little bit touchy.

We'll see how it goes.

[ANDREW]
Also, in terms of other gifts for Greenlanders, do you have any ideas?

[DUBSIDE]
Well, what I, what I like to do, and I've found this in the past, is if you have a t-shirt from another event, like a, like a TIPS t-shirt or, or, or a TRAQS or gathering t-shirts from, from any year that it's like kayak thing, you know, it can be English words, whatever, with a, with a picture or something like that. They're into that. You can trade for, for what they have.

When I got last, last year, I brought back the Nuuk team jacket and other things. I traded some t-shirts I brought for some of those things. So they're, they're, they're quite interested in things like that.

[ANDREW]
Cool. That's a great idea. 

[DUBSIDE]
And then if you've got a little kayak USA pin, they have pins for their clubs. Years past, they used to be way more into that, but pins, patches, whatever to trade. Yeah.

They're, they're into that. Now, if you are going to bring a nice paddle and would care to leave it there, they would appreciate that. Although if it's really nice, you probably wouldn't want to do that.

But yeah, anything, leave them a dry suit, you know, it gets expensive, but yeah, they can use any, any kind of gear like that. So some of the dry suits they have, you know, the, the gaskets are shot and they're still trying to use them or wet suits with holes in them and stuff like that. I think the, like the Nuuk team recently got like an influx of new gear, but sometimes their stuff is really beat up because it's, you know, it's hard to, hard to service those things at a place like that.

[ANDREW]
All right. Yeah. Good ideas.

All right, Jon, thanks for joining us and looking forward to meeting you in person.

[JON]
You too. Thanks for having me. It's been a pleasure.