it’s weird that kayaks seem like … clearly one of the best ways for humans to get around water, yet afaik they only became widespread beyond like indigenous subarctic peoples in the 20th century
perhaps related is the fact that in Oxford and Cambridge the primary form of aquatic transportation is punting, which just seems shitty enough it’s hard to imagine it was ever actually used by anyone, but then again I guess being conspicuously shitty for signaling purposes is like the whole thing of those places so