17 Wooden Watercraft: from Ships to Surfboards (Slideshow)
Photo: Wooden Kayaks
When you consider that Earth's surface has been calculated to be over 70% water, and about 30% of the planet's dry land area is forested, it's easy to see why humankind has harnessed one resource to travel across another.
Mind you, we have decimated our forests in the process, some estimates suggest by 40% in the past 11,000 years. The history of European maritime supremacy in both military and merchant realms can be traced to availability of homegrown timber. As national forests diminished so to did regional seafaring dominance.
Yet the beauty of timber, is that, when managed responsibly, it is a renewable resource. Not to mention it is innately beautiful, of its own accord. There's something about timber that makes you just want to reach out and touch it. Here then is TreeHugger's small homage to humankind's use of wood to walk on water, from Sloops to Snowshoes, Sculls to Skis, Submarines to Sea Kayaks.