Jesper Nielsen: Kayaking and Life in Sisimiut

Recorded in the rain during the 2025 Greenland National Kayaking Championship in Sisimiut, Dubside talks with Danish civil engineer and traditional kayaking competitor Jesper Nielsen.

Jesper describes his work and daily life in Greenland, from its unusual system of land use and rapidly expanding construction to Arctic winters, the midnight sun, and surprisingly inexpensive fuel. He also compares Danish and Greenlandic paddling cultures, discusses the International Paddle Pass certification system, and explains how he introduced skeptical Danish club members to the speed and versatility of the Greenland paddle.

The conversation turns to cold-water equipment, local approaches to paddling safety, and Jesper’s experience with the Sisimiut Qajaq Club. He also shares a resident’s perspective on international talk of buying Greenland—and the reaction that idea received locally.

Transcript

[DUBSIDE]
Welcome to the Dubcast with Dubside. This is a special guest edition of the Dubcast. I'll be talking to Jesper Galsøe Nielsen, a Danish guy who's lived in Sisimiut for a couple years and has become involved with the kayaking club there.

We talked about his job in Greenland as a civil engineer, how land ownership works in Greenland, the EPP European Kayak Certification System, drysuits, the weather in Greenland, the sunlight or lack of sunlight during the year in Greenland, the price of gasoline there, and the reactions to the idea that somebody would want to buy the country of Greenland. This runs roughly 25 minutes. I'm talking to Jesper, your last name is?

[JESPER] 
Galsøe Nielsen.

[DUBSIDE]
How do you spell that? 

[JESPER] 
It's some of the Danish letters, G-A-L-S-Ø-E Nielsen.

[DUBSIDE]
We're here in Sisimiut at the kayak competition right now in July of 2025. You've been involved in the kayak competition for a couple of years now?

[JESPER]
Yeah, I've been involved in the Greenlandic competition for two years now. I've been living in Sisimiut for also two years. 

[DUBSIDE]
And what's your occupation?

[JESPER] 
I work at Masanti as a civil engineer. So it's mainly structural engineering and also a lot of different building site visiting and building management and different things.

[DUBSIDE]
There seems to be a tremendous amount of building going on in Greenland these days, is that correct? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, it is, yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
There's a whole infrastructure for tourism building up with the new airports, is that right?

[JESPER]
Yeah, that is, yeah. But I don't know so much about that. My work is mainly different buildings like family houses, bigger warehouses, many different things.

Here in Sisimiut it's mainly building management. We're also doing land surveying of some of the buildings.

[DUBSIDE]
I understand that an individual person doesn't buy land in Greenland. There's no ownership of land. How does that work?

[JESPER]
It basically works by the government that owns all the property. So instead of owning the property as we see in most countries in the world, instead of buying the property and then owning the property and then you build a house, then you just apply for the area to build the house and then you get permission for that. So you don't actually own the owned, you don't really have a property, there's no defined area in which your property is, you just own the area that your house is based on.

[DUBSIDE]
So if you pay all this money to buy a house and put it on some land somewhere, you still own the house? 

[JESPER]
Yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
But what's directly under the house you sort of have since you bought the house, right?

[JESPER]
Yeah, it sounds a bit funny, but it basically means you don't own your own property. You own the house, but you don't own the property. I think that's also why you don't really see a lot of fences around the house.

[DUBSIDE]
I hadn't thought of that, yeah, you're right.

[JESPER]
Normally you would see a nice hedge or fence, but you don't really see that up here because you don't have the property.

[DUBSIDE]
That's interesting. Say when you do buildings and things, all the construction material has to be imported pretty much, is that right?

[JESPER]
Yeah, most of them, yeah. When they make concrete they have a more local place to get the gravel and rocks for the concrete, but basically everything else they import from Denmark, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
All right. Well, let's talk about kayaking. And Qajaq Sisimiut. Have you done kayaking before in Denmark?

[JESPER]
Yeah, I've been sea kayaking for I think it's around 11 years now. So most of my kayaking has been in modern kayaks, like plastic and glass fiber kayaks.

[DUBSIDE] 
And you started in Denmark? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, so 11 years ago I started, I actually took this EPP2 kayak course.

[DUBSIDE]
EPP would be the equivalent to, in the U.S. we have the ACA, American Canoe Association, or the BCU, the British Canoe Union. So EPP is another sort of like a certification instructional thing in Denmark?

[JESPER]
Yeah, it's like, well actually technically the one I took was the, it was called the DGI, what does that stand for? It's the Danish sports institution. They had their own equivalent to the EPP2.

[DUBSIDE] 
EPP stands for European Paddle Pass? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, and they actually just changed the name of that now to IPP2, International Paddle Pass. A couple of years ago. 

Because it has, I don't know why, because technically the European Paddle Pass was not really working I think and everyone had their own.

I think they had another one in France.

[DUBSIDE]
It's hard to get a standard established that everybody buys into.

[JESPER]
Yeah, so there was some, for some reason they had to change the name to International Paddle Pass. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So now it's IPP? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah. And IPP2 is the level you need to be a member of a kayak club in Denmark.

[DUBSIDE]
So is that a particular kayak club or there's a… I’ve heard that there's a Danish Kayak Federation and there's more than one group, isn't there?

[JESPER]
Yeah, there's DKF, which is the Dansk Kajak Forbund, I guess it's called. 

[DUBSIDE] 
Kayak Federation we'd say. 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, Kayak Federation, yeah.

And then there's that DGI, which is the Danish… I don't remember what it stands for again now, but it's more like the Danish sports institution. And they also have their own equivalent courses, yeah.

[DUBSIDE] 
And is it just sea kayaking they do or is there other kayaking? 

[JESPER] 
No, they have for sea kayak and for flat water kayak, because flat water kayaking is actually, I think overall it's more popular in Denmark. At least traditionally, if you look back to the 90s and 80s, it was very popular with the flat water kayak.

[DUBSIDE]
So how do you define flat water kayaking as opposed to sea kayaking?

[JESPER]
It's mainly the type of kayak. Yeah, like in Danish, flat water kayak is what we call turkajak.

[DUBSIDE]
So you're not worried about big waves and tides and currents, you're just floating on?

[JESPER]
Yeah, it's more for paddling on small rivers, like not white water, but small calm rivers and lakes and also on the sea if it's calm weather. So they're more narrow, but they're more built for speed.

[DUBSIDE]
In those clubs, like in the EPP, how much awareness is there of Greenland paddles and Greenland kayaks and things?

[JESPER]
I would say when you take the official IPP courses, there's very little knowledge of Greenlandic kayaks and paddles. The kayak club I mainly paddle in Denmark is the Vedbæk Kajakklub. When I started showing up there with my Greenland paddle, everyone was like, “Oh, what is that tiny stick that guy is using? It can't work, it looks so tiny, there's no way he can paddle with that one.”

Then I showed up with my relatively small Greenlandic paddle, the first one I made was only 2 meters and 20 long, which is a bit short for me. Then I showed up and I easily did the same speed as the other guys who had a wing paddle.

[DUBSIDE] 
Then they started to come around? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, there was one other who already had one, but I think some of them started to get some respect for the Greenlandic paddle. Especially they could see how many rolls you can do with the Greenlandic paddle.

[DUBSIDE]
I was going to ask you about rolling with the regular paddles. Do they do just the one roll, like the C to C roll, and that's about it?

[JESPER]
Yeah, I mean, especially from the kayak club in Vedbæk, quite many people actually use a wing paddle, which is like, I would say mainly you would use a wing paddle for a sprint kayak. 

[DUBSIDE]
Where it’s all about speed, just trying to go as fast as you can. 

[JESPER]
Yeah, exactly, all about speed, yeah.

And with a wing paddle, because it's basically a big spoon, you can't really do any sweep much with a wing paddle at all. So for the wing paddle, it's only like either a standard roll or a C to C roll you can do with that one.

[DUBSIDE]
So in that type of thinking, nobody's making their own paddles, is that correct?

For the most part, nobody makes their own wing paddle. 

[JESPER] 
Oh yeah, that doesn't happen, because it's usually like a carbon fiber. 

Yeah, so I actually did a paddle building course some years ago in the club.

[DUBSIDE] 
For Greenland paddles? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, so we had a team of five people who built a paddle, and they were quite happy with that. And in Denmark, actually all of them were women, and I think in Denmark there's kind of an opinion that Greenlandic paddles are only for old people and people who have like a wrist injury or something.

So it's a bit more safe for the body to use a Greenland paddle. Like it's not as tough on your joints, I would say.

[DUBSIDE]
But when people have seen you paddle the same speed as them, do you change people's minds, maybe?

[JESPER]
I mean, I would hope so, but I think many of them still keep their way and keep using the wing paddles. But I think they get more respect when they see that it actually works pretty fine, yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So in Denmark, are people paddling all year round?

[JESPER] 
Yeah, I would say so. It's a bit more all year round. Many clubs have like, you need to be winter certified.

So like you need to do the rescue exercises and maybe rolling in the winter. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So what kind of paddling clothing? Are you using dry suits, wet suits, or what?

[JESPER] 
Yeah, in the winter? You mean in Denmark? In Denmark, in the winter, it would always be a dry suit and some fleece or wool under that.

[DUBSIDE]
Typically, what manufacturer is making the dry suit? Do you have a European brand of dry suits?

[JESPER]
Personally, I don't really care much about the brands. I always found them second hand.

[DUBSIDE]
In the US, I find it to be very expensive, like too expensive. 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, yeah, exactly.


I mean, I know if you go to the canoe and kayak store they have around Copenhagen, a new dry suit is like 8 or 10 thousand or something Danish kroner. 

[DUBSIDE] 
\Which is more than a thousand US dollars. 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, yeah, almost up to two thousand, I think, yeah.

So I always found them second hand.

[DUBSIDE]
And then you still find that the rubber gaskets you have to replace every so often? Is that the case?

[JESPER]
No, actually, personally, I always had the neoprene sleeve. 

[DUBSIDE] 
Good for you.

[JESPER] 
Yeah, because, well, usually it comes with the slightly cheaper dry suits, I think, and also you don't really get that kind of rubbing on your neck, so you get scars and stuff, I think, with the latex one.

[DUBSIDE]
Yeah, yeah. So, living in Greenland now and getting involved with the kayak club here, what differences have you seen? How has that changed things?

Just tell me about that experience.

[JESPER]
Yeah, I think the first thing that struck me up here was the level of safety. In the way that they don't have so much thought about safety.

[DUBSIDE]
So it's a lower level, they're not as concerned about safety?

[JESPER]
Yeah, well, I would say overall they do care about safety, but in terms of equipment, they don't care much about safety. Like, you rarely see people using a dry suit or not even a safety vest or anything. But they still care about don't paddle alone on open sea and don't paddle if the weather is too harsh and those kind of things.

But mainly in terms of the equipment, I would say they don't really do much. And you would see people paddling in a t-shirt when it's like 5 degrees outside and the water is freezing cold.

[DUBSIDE]
So, the kayak competition that the clubs do every year, you've been involved with that? With Qajaq Sisimiut?

[JESPER] 
Yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
And so, when you have winter time, in Sisimiut we're north of the Arctic Circle, so there's some, like, what's it, January, there's no sun at all? It's almost dark?

[JESPER]
Yeah, I think, so technically, I think there's half an hour of sunlight in Sisimiut, the darkest day of year. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So, it gets light, the sun doesn't come up over the horizon, but it just gets, the sky gets light? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, it's basically like that, yeah.

You don't see the sun at all around December here. And then in the summer we have midnight sun for, I think it's one and a half months. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So, in the winter time, does that get, like, depressing? 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, it gets, yeah, it's a bit tough to wake up in the morning, I would say, is the worst part. Then you get up at work and, yeah, and it doesn't get light before 11 o'clock or something in the morning, so, yeah.

[DUBSIDE] 
So, do, does any kayaking happen in the winter time? 

[JESPER] 
Nah, no, people don't kayak in the winter usually, yeah. Sometimes, but not much, yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
But at the club, do they work on building kayaks, or do they practice ropes inside, or do they do much in the winter time at all?

[JESPER]
In Sisimiut, it's a bit limited activity in the club in the winter, actually.
But people, some people are building kayaks. But mainly up to the competition, people are, yeah, people realize two months before the competition, “Oh, holy shit, I have to build a new kayak.”

[DUBSIDE]
So, like, May, May or into June, it starts happening.

Because it's still, like, the temperatures get above freezing, like, what time of year does it start to thaw out and the snow starts to melt?

[JESPER]
Usually we have winter until some point in May, middle of May, end of May even. Yeah.

Last year, I think, my last snowmobile trip was, like, the beginning of June. And this year winter ended in the middle of May, I think.

[DUBSIDE]
So, in the middle of winter, you have snowmobiles, you have sled dogs, you have that stuff going on. 

[JESPER] 
Yeah, and lots of cross-country skiing as well.

[DUBSIDE] 
Skiing, yeah, yeah. All right. I've seen all the, what do you call it, the quad, the thing with the four wheels on it. 

[JESPER] 
Oh, the ATV?

[DUBSIDE] 
ATV, yeah, yeah, yeah. My last couple of times in Sisimiut, I don't recall seeing as many of those. Now you see them driving all the time.

[JESPER]
No, okay. When was your last time in Sisimiut? 

[DUBSIDE] 
2013 or something. Yeah, ’13 or ’14 maybe.

[JESPER]
Yeah, I suppose there's been a lot more ATVs up here recently. I also noticed myself because I was studying up here six years ago.

And at that point, I had a feeling there was quite less amount of cars and ATVs on the road than now. So, I think quite many people started to get a car and an ATV..

Even though it's a small town, but once you get a car, I guess it's just more convenient to drive around. 

[DUBSIDE]
So, the price of gas here is very high, very low, for your car?

[JESPER] 
Oh, it's very low. So, I have a boat myself and when we fuel the boat, I almost laugh about the price every time because it just came up to like 5 Danish kroner a liter.

And last year, it was like 4, 4.5 Danish kroner a liter. 

[DUBSIDE] 
So, in Denmark, what would you be paying? 

[JESPER] 
I mean, it's a couple of years ago I lived in Denmark now, but usually I think it's around 17 Danish kroner a liter. 

[DUBSIDE] 
That's like more than three times the price. 

[JESPER] 
Three times more, yeah, because you pay taxes and tax on top of the tax and I don't know how many things in Denmark.

And here, I think it actually gets subsidized. So, there's no tax at all on the oil and it even gets subsidized by the government to keep it low.

[DUBSIDE]
I've been told that for a Danish person living here for more than, what, six months, that allows you to vote in the elections?

[JESPER]
Yeah.

[DUBSIDE]
All right.

Are you involved with politics and stuff and following that? 

[JESPER] 
No, I would say I'm not following much, but I did vote when we had the election, though.

[DUBSIDE]
So, how has the general view of things changed here at the beginning of this year, when the U.S. had an election and got a new president and there was also a big extra fuss about Greenland? What have you noticed?

[JESPER]
What I have noticed is, I think there's been more fuss about it and talk about it in Denmark and the U.S. probably. Like living up here, okay, I mean, yes, people talk about it, but I don't think anyone has been really worried much about the U.S. actually buying Greenland or some of those quite extreme things. People have been, I would say, almost a bit angry about it and there has been demonstrations and many things against it.

[DUBSIDE]
I get the sense that the Greenlanders in general were rather offended at the idea that somebody wanted to buy their land. Is that true?

[JESPER]
Yeah, I would say so, yeah. I heard a politician saying that, no, yeah, but then if the U.S. wants to buy Greenland, well, but then we want to make an offer to buy the U.S. because you have so much, I don't know, there's so much debt in the state of the U.S., so maybe we can just buy it cheap. Just making a counteroffer, like we buy you instead.

[DUBSIDE]
So are you planning to keep living here for the future?

[JESPER]
Yeah, for now, yeah. I take it as it comes. I moved up here with my wife two years ago.

At that point she didn't have a job. She's from Japan. So we moved up here because I got the job and then we're just taking it as it comes. And now she has a job at the municipality. 

[DUBSIDE] 
A job where?

[JESPER] 
In the municipality.

[DUBSIDE]
In the municipality. Yeah, okay. All right. Well, good luck and I hope to be back in Greenland again next year. The competition will probably not be in Sisimiut, but wherever it is, you think you'll be there?

[JESPER] 
Yeah, I think so, yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
All right. Well, I hope to see you again.

[JESPER] 
Yeah, you too, yeah. 

[DUBSIDE] 
All right. Thank you very much.

[JESPER] 
Yeah, thank you too. 

[DUBSIDE] 
And there you have Jesper Galsøe-Nielsen, recorded in July of 2025. And you can probably hear that it is raining while I record that.

The competition was going on in the background and we're over on the side there. And there are plenty of indoor places to go, but I just have to grab people whenever I can get them. And we were outdoors and it was raining, but I got that interview out of them nonetheless.

Jesper did compete at the competition in all the events. The four different races, the team rolling and individual rolling. And the harpoon throwing for distance and accuracy as well as the ropes.

He was in the very competitive 20 to 34 year old men's Greenland group. And his rolling score was 115 points. He did 90 points on the ropes.

And in the harpoon accuracy, he got a bronze medal. And that's with just one try. They used to give you two or three chances, but now it's one throw for distance, one throw for accuracy and that's your score.

Thank you for listening to the Dubcast with Dubside.