Solo Canoeing Workshop

first of all uh these boats uh the reason we're using these little boats as opposed to a regular siiz canoe a two or three person boat is that they're versatile they work very well for small Waters like this we're going to be on small streams ponds Lakes they're very light these boats weigh uh oh I don't know probably 1/5th 16th of what you weigh very light to carry you can lift them up with one hand which you're going to see one finger actually very easy Portage there's there's not much to them uh and as small as they are and as as low as they are to the water they're very stable you can rock things all you want and you're not going to tip go you can lean way over in the thing very stable so once you get in the boat just sit in it to start with and walk around and get a real feel for how how safe and comfortable you're going to be some people are so jittery at first because they haven't been in a boat or haven't done much that's balance uh uh oriented that uh they get stiff and they hold on and they end up tipping right over in got to just loosen up your hips all of the uh movement exercises we've been doing here's a practical application this boat as you get comfortable with it as you get used to it it's going to be a second skin to you uh you're just going to be here and you're going to be moving around just it's going to be just like walking just like running show you an easy way to get in and out of the boat that's probably when they're the most unstable for many people always keep your weight in the center of the boat because the boat's very small to get out if you're up in the shoreline you can put one hand on the shoreline and one foot right the center of the boat always in the center and all you have to do is lift up on that BL foot you can step right out get back in and just put the one foot right in the center and slat yourself down everybody see that is that easy enough very easy so you're standing on the shoreline see if I can get a solid sh line here I'll show you [Applause] yeah okay here's a solid Shoreline I get my foot under me and lift up step out Step Up Get in there's my boat put my foot right in the center I've got one foot here yet so I've got stability the other boat can slide around all at once and I've got my foot on land no problem so if it's a fast running stream or Rapids it doesn't matter one foot in the center then I replace that foot with my hand and just get in sit down very easy yeah little practice and you'll get it it's no big deal don't touch the boat you're touching the boat okay remember to put your weight down and put your hand where your foot is then you want to get me out no you you you want you're going in right now yeah yeah go ahead sit in your boat get in your boat nope you're touching the boat don't touch the boat put your hand nope nope put remember put your hand where your foot is yes don't touch yeah okay all right yeah okay now get up without touching the boat get yeah get that foot underneath you yep and step out you got it you got it okay now practice that in and out without touching the boat okay one thing not to do you notice how I pulled the boat up parallel to the Shoreline so there's no tension on the boat the boat is always fling in the water when your weights in it some people like to Ram the bow up on the shoreline and then get in and get out that way it's very hard for the boat because when you have the boat suspended and you step in it the bottom of the boat is taking all of your weight all of your pressure and you're going to end up cracking it this is fiberglass and it's very brittle mhm it has its own flexibility but it can't handle your weight so the boat should always be suspended in the water when you're getting in and out of it come up parallel to the Shoreline now if you saw me uh if you have a tight spot if you're not able to go in at an angle well you can you can go like this and pull yourself right up to the Shoreline very easily and to push off you can do the reverse can get out like this if you're in a tight spot MH very easy so when you get in the water you practice this just going back and forth like this you see how I'm doing that the paddle in the water you angle the front of the paddle This way push up like this and you angle it back the other way push back like this and you're just going back and forth two basic types of canoe paddles this is called a beaver tail style because it's nice and wide Broad and this is called an Otter Tail style because it's narrow and long the Otter Tail style is designed for deep water uh some of them are even longer than this you can get them twice as long so that you can dig down and get a real good bite in deep water the Open Water big lakes Otter Tail Styles usually used for Waters like this that are shallow where you're doing a lot of maneuvering this is best because you don't have to have very deep water this boat floats in about this much water it's all it takes you can see that I'm not not sinking very much in the water here and this paddle gets a good bite in the water right away you just have to get a quarter or a half for the paddle in and you've got uh good maneuverability with just half of the paddle in the water I can maneuver pretty well here not a problem and I'm going to show you some basic Strokes that doesn't mean you're going to be using them much because it's just like walking every step is unique same with paddling especially in waters like this when you're maneuvering all the time you're speeding up slowing down going around curves avoiding stumps in the water you're going to be using a lot of modified Strokes when you're practicing spend equal amount of side on uh of uh time on each side of the boat with your paddle so that you get used to being able to switch and being able to do everything on either side if you're going through a rock garden for example you might be able to paddle on this side better here and on this side better here you're not going to have a lot of width or a very narrow stream you're going to be switching back and forth first of all uh with the basic stroke you're using triangulation you notice that I'm forming a triangle here with my two arms in the paddle you're going to pick a paddle that has an arm the same length as your arm just like this one here when you when you run it up like this right here this should come right to your shoulder uh joint right here this one's too long for me it's about this much too long can you see that yeah mhm it's just much too long should come right to my shoulder joint when I'm holding it like this just run it up like that it's too long I should be holding it right here and to paddle keep your arms as straight as possible because uh you're not you're not fatiguing your arms when you're paddling then you stick the paddle straight in the water with the arm vertical you don't want to paddle out like this because the more you paddle off to one side the boat's going to turn in the opposite direction so you keep your arm you keep your paddle up straight Dig Down do a full stroke with a follow through and then hold the paddle in the water because this is where you steer where you maneuver okay now I'm going to turn the top of my paddle outward toward you see I'm turning toward you turn the paddle the other way away from you and I'm turning in the other direction so with every stroke I'm doing a turn [Applause] now a quick turn say I'm going down a stream and there's a rock dead ahead and I want to turn that way put my paddle up as far as possible and just dig into the water see how I'm turning into the shoreline same with the other direction paddle up as far as possible and grab onto the gunel with the paddle so that you have stability I'll come at you so you can see it see I'm coming toward you and I want to turn to the north real quickly I'll grab onto the bow grab onto my paddle bow the boat turns real quickly see it virtually no effort the stability you want to gain there especially if you're going fast if you're going down a rapid is comes from hanging onto the gunnel so you have the strength of a boat all you're doing is using your hand as a visce SCP here to attach the paddle to the boat if you're just holding on to it like this your your paddle could hit a rock or or or the Rapids could pull the paddle out of your hand come down and drip right away and extend as far forward as possible because the farther forward you go the faster you're going to turn don't do it back here extend yourself way out just lean forward like this okay if you want to turn the stern of your boat you can do the same thing except backwards lean backwards and hold on like this and that pushes the stern of your boat out of course you're pulling your paddle out of the water but if you need to you can extend your paddle do a sweep go right around the back keep sweeping extend around again sweep and go in a full circle pretty quickly if you need to and now you're heading Upstream lean your paddle back as far as possible like this and give it a broad sweep reach out as far as you can go over your boat sweep the other way reaching out as far as you can just keep going around in a circle like this and turn on a dime very quickly [Applause] okay two important things to remember that fit with just about anything you're going to be doing with stealth paddling is to do everything right beside the boat here you shouldn't have to do any reaching out do everything right beside the boat and that is so that you can be as compressed as possible so that you can fit into tight spaces so that you're not creating a a big Echo effect everything right beside the boat right here second avoid this avoid wrapping your thumb around either place keep your thumb and your fingers all together and wrap your hand around they are a couple of important points there one is that you have a lot of flexibility with your paddle then you have to hold very little um just apply pressure to the paddle you don't even have to wrap your fingers around the paddle in order to move secondly for people who've done much craft work you know that this tendon right in here is very fragile when you do a lot of paddling you end up with blisters here and you end up with irritation here so protect that area palm of your hand is a whole lot more resilient than the Crux of the thumb and the forefinger so do everything like this as much as possible let's see what else can I show you oh silent paddling sometimes we want to be quiet be stealthy you want to con coup on a turtle this is very helpful you don't pull your paddle out of the water because every time you do you're breaking the surface you're dripping you're causing noise keep your paddle in the water paddle just like you normally would and do your adjustment at the end you know turning your paddle either outward or inward to steer and then keep the blade of the paddle in the water have it knife through the water like this and dig down again just keep your paddle in the water at all times you can paddle silently if you pull your paddle forward with the blade just above the water so that it cuts through it won't make any noise then sink it down pull forward pull the paddle up again cut it through the water and down again right alongside your boat up again down again up again same thing all the way through silent and efficient another Power Stroke where you keep the paddle completely in is to do this just back and forth right beside your boat what I'm doing is cutting down like this as I'm going it's cutting downward each time I'm going back and forth see that and you can go pretty fast this way once you get going without taking your padle out of the water there are several ways to Portage the boats carry them the way I like best is to just grab it like this lift it up and keep it on my hand let my hand rest on my shoulder mhm if I let the boat rest on my shoulder it's going to dig in the gunnel here is going to dig in so I just let it rest on my shoulder very easy to handle PL in the water when I get there so light very easy if you're going any distance you can put your sleeping bag on your shoulder or sleeping bag oh man you gave it away multiple usage of gear you know now put this on your shoulder and uh it's not too bad when one side gets tiring switch over to the other side switch over to the other side another way to do it is to hold down with both hands like this uh it's pretty easy you can rest it on your head uh it rests pretty easily if you get a center spot on your head another way uh can can I have two paddles is to cross the paddles like this oh yeah and put have a paddle blade on each shoulder so the paddle blades who mhm okay here you go so the metal blades are resting on your shoulders which disperses the weight nicely another weight a way to uh carry them if there are two of you and you've got a lot of space move up here is that one of you gets in the front and one behind you can grab two boats like this with your gear inside the boats two in front and carry pretty easily you can walk that way yeah especially with it's impossible going through the woods because you need a broad broad breath to do it but it's an easy way to go when you're out in the open well what are your Reflections on on what You' picked up on your first canoeing experience at least here together this kind of canoing I mean it's great I I have fun fun with it and I can see um like when I I um use Different Strokes than just the normal or like a little to the side I can do so much more to uh navigate through the whatever hummocks and what whatever they tiny movements oh I can also see the advantage of the different techniques it's I mean it's I know it takes a while till it's like like normal and until everything's just like walking and I can see it it happened that it will be like this and I look forward to [Applause] that

Channel: Teaching Drum Outdoor School

Views: 176,874

Keywords: solo canoeing techniques, canoeing solo, canoeing strokes, Teaching Drum Outdoor School, Tamarack Song, guardian intensive program, canoe, canoeing, wilderness school, wilderness course, outdoor survival course

Id: kMx70wqMA9k

Length: 17min 54sec (1074 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 03 2014