In The Beginning

The origin of kayaking began 4,000 years ago as people from Siberia colonized along the coasts of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. In this barren Arctic landscape their search for food often led to the water and into frigid oceans full of sea life. In a world without trees, driftwood was split with stone and bone wedges and shaped into a skeleton which was then covered with sealskin to create the first kayaks! Kayak means "hunter's boat" or "man's boat" The builder used found materials to create a kayak measured to his own body.
For example:
The length was typically 3x the span of his outstretched arms.
The width at the cockpit was the width of the builder's hips plus two fists (and sometimes less).
The typical depth was his fist plus the outstretched thumb (hitch hiker).
Thus typical dimensions were about 17 feet long by 20–22 inches wide by 7 inches deep.
This measurement system confounded early European explorers who tried to duplicate the kayak because each kayak was a little different. To hunt these waters Arctic kayakers braved sub-freezing temperatures, gale force winds, ice cold waters, and some of the roughest open waterways on earth!

Doesn't sound like an enjoyable afternoon paddle.... but at least you know your kayak can make it through the afternoon squall.

Many years later in 1936 kayaking became part of the Olympics. The design of the kayak has also changed, not olny through the materials used but in the shape, length and function. 
I'll save kayak design for a later post.....