Avatar:Penguin sledding
📚
This article was imported from Avatar Wiki under the CC-BY-SA license.
📎 View original · 📅 Imported: 2025-12-22
Penguin sledding is a recreational activity and sport in which a person sleds down snow or ice-covered surfaces on the back of an otter penguin. The riders usually lure these animals to them using fish. Though the game is typically played by young children, it can be enjoyed by any person light enough to ride the animal.[1][2] Otter penguins are known to be quite competitive when partaking in the sport.[2]
History
When Aang was freed from the iceberg, he asked Katara to go penguin sledding with him immediately after meeting her, something to which she confusedly agreed. However, when it came to catching one of these animals, the Avatar's method of chasing them proved to be ineffective, as the animals evaded capture each time. Katara came to his aid by showing him how to lure them with fish. She threw the bait to Aang, who was immediately overrun by the hungry animals. Using that technique, Aang and Katara each managed to catch an animal, enabling them to go penguin sledding.[1]
As they proceeded down the slope, they encountered ramps and ice tunnels, both of which they traversed while on the backs of the otter penguins. At one point, Aang even used airbending to increase his speed. Their ride unintentionally brought them to the site of an old, abandoned shipwreck.[1]
When Katara and Sokka returned to the Southern Water Tribe in 102 AG for the first time after the conclusion of the Hundred Year War, Katara spotted several young children sledding down a hill on otter penguins. Reminiscing about the day she first met Aang, she invited her brother to each take an otter penguin and sled down the hill. Sokka complied though regretted his choice once he flew through the snow at high speeds and collided with a wooden beam at the bottom of the slope. As he sat in the snow, dazed due to the crash, his otter penguin happily waddled back to its group.[3]
Over the next years, penguin sledding became a competitive sport in the Southern Water Tribe, with some people training year-round to achieve good results. Even the otter penguins themselves proved to be surprisingly competitive and actively engage with the sport.[2]
