Canoeing

In Canada, the canoe has long been associated with the fur trade and the hearty figure of the voyageur. The design of canoes used to transport people and pelts across the vast interior of North America from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century was borrowed from Indigenous watercraft.

Today Canoes come in a variety of styles to serve different purposes. Canoes are also made from different materials depending on their primary use. Canoes have different features, like hull design, length and seating capacity. Canoes come in many shapes and sizes.

A properly outfitted canoe with trained and experienced paddlers is at home on a pond, a lake, a river or the ocean.

Canoeing for beginners to avid paddlers

The view of most people who do not actively canoe, is that canoeing is something you do on a pond in the summer. To quote a recent student of mine who did an Introduction to Lake Tandem canoeing course ” I did not known how much there was to canoeing”.

Canoeing can be what ever you want it to be. It can be done on a pond or small lake in a recreational canoe purchased at a local box store or it can be done in a canoe from an outdoors sports store. A lot comes down to where you want to go and how much do you want to spend.

Recreational Canoe vs Multi-purpose Canoe

A recreational canoe is generally purchased at a local box store or hardware store. Fun and easy to paddle, recreational canoes are great for flatwater paddling. Stable, easy to control and a little harder to flip over, they’re ideal for birding, photography, fishing and general paddling. Because they are so stable, they aren’t as agile as other canoe styles.

Multi-purpose canoes are more expensive and generally purchased from an outfitting store. Canoes in this category are built to handle everything from calm lakes to whitewater rivers. In general, they offer greater maneuverability and more capacity than recreational boats. Included here are high-volume “tripping” canoes, designed to handle big gear loads and extended trips.

Canoeing Disciplines

Lake Tandem Canoeing

Moving Water Canoeing

Coastal Canoeing

Solo Canoeing

Canoe Polling

Canoe Camping