Cornelius Warmerdam was an athlete from California who dominated the pole vault event in the 1940s. He was the first man to clear 15 feet (4,57 m.) in 1940. Two years later, he raised the new world record to 15 ft. and 7,75 in. (4,76 m.). This record would remain unchallenged for 15 years, and was achieved with a rattan pole. Before engineered plastics or fiberglass technology were fully available for objects such as pole vaults, simple rattan canes, carefully grown and chosen by rattan experts, were used in the top competition events. I know this because Victor Maison, the founder of Bamboo & Rattan Works Inc., used to be one of those experts, and supplied carefully chosen rattan poles to athletes all around the world. The rattan poles which made it to the high competition events were minimally transformed by adding a selective reinforcement of tape or cloth. One might contend that a rattan pole turned pole vault is not a very interesting object. I would disagree. There is a remarkable simplicity in the notion of taking a natural fiber as is and using it in such a specialized and precise manner. It seems far-fetched to us to think in those terms, used as we are in our time to artifacts. The poles used in today’s vaulting contests are high-tech carbon fiber marvels, like the one Bubka used to set his still unchallenged 1994 world record in 6,14 m. (20.14 ft.).
