Harpoon throwing day Harpoon throwing day Harpoon throwing day

Harpoon throwing day. Yayy!

I have always been a bit suspicios about it and thought it was unneccessary to practice another hobby, like harpoon throwing. However, today at the competition and the practice day yesterday, proved me totally wrong. Throwing harpoons from a kayak is a blast!

This is what we learned

In Greenland Harpoon Throwing (saaqqusersorneq) there are two parts of the competition: first you paddle to a set point, like a buoyoy, a row of them on a line or something. There you throw your farthest. It helps to have high speed but your kayak needs to go straight without paddle correction while you are aiming. You then pick up the harpoon from where it landed, reset it back on the kayak, paddle slowly forwards and throw from 10m (2 kayak lengths for men) at concentric hula-hoop rings. Zero points for missing the outer circle. More for the inner ones. Point of the harpoon should hit the water first or zero score.

Equipment

Harpoon pegs should not get stuck in the Norsaq. Wood expands on a long session in the water. So you can have harpoon pegs in bone or inset some material in the norsaq which does not expand.

The harpoon needs to be >1kg, (2.2 lbs) to be considered allowed.

Paddle should be held across the kayak and harpoon, in the air, not in the water or the lunch will hear you splashing.

The harpoon should also never touch the water when picking it up and throwing it. It can be as long as you want and gets more accurate with length, but it would also dip in the water...pick your poison!

Norsaqs can be as short or long you want then to be, depending on your strength and accuracy. More experimentation needed here...

You reach over the paddle to pick up the harpoon (in front of the paddle). The business end of the harpoon should be kept towards the kayak's stern when paddling. This is to simulate the harpoon line not getting tangled in your paddle, which would be very important.

It helps to have harpoon holders on the kayak for quick access and safe storage.

To summarize

We all suck at this compared to a seal hunter who has trained for this all their life in order to survive. Enjoy it! Even the good paddlers blow it sometimes and get zero points.

Look and listen more from John Pedersen here.