Souris River Skeena

Has anyone out there paddled a Souris River Skeena? I looked at the specs and it seems like it could be a decent "down-river" tripper for a long, mostly whitewater, paddle and if it is as tough as my old SR Tranquility it should hold up pretty well especially in the whitewater layup.. Problem is that I have not been able to locate one to check out. SR does not make a lot of them, and their two US dealers don't stock any. Why is it I always seem to end up interested in the different, rare, unusual and non-mainstream canoes? 'Tis a curse...

If anyone in this group has paddled one -especially with a good load of gear- I would love to hear your thoughts on this canoe.

And you're a long ways from Atikokan. I liked the factory tour, after a Beaverhouse trip. Call Wayne at the factory and see what he can offer in the way of other owners or a test paddle. He's pretty resourceful and likes to accommodate.

Wow, six inches of bow rocker and two in the back, that is an odd duck for sure.

Hi Bill,
I played phone tag with Wayne and finally started an email conversation with him. Seems like a good guy. They do not keep the Skeena in stock, nor do the two US dealers, but they will build them on request. They have made them for a quite a while but have not made very many compared to their tripping canoes. I would love to actually see and (hopefully) paddle one.
If I do order one, it would be a good excuse to get up there and paddle Quetico! I don't mind a good road trip with some paddling at the end.

It is an interesting asymmetrical mix. My Bell Yellowstone tandem had a rocker of 3" on the bow and 2" on the stern (if I remember correctly) and turned nicely into a eddy when needed.

Never heard of this canoe, so I was curious.



I don't think I've ever seen a canoe with a squared deck nose. I also don't like aluminum gunwales and thwarts. They will crease or kink from hard whitewater impacts rather than flexing and rebounding as well as wood or vinyl can. Finally, I'm not sure how easy it is to adjust the height on those hull mounted seats—are they bolted through the hull?—compared to hung seats.

Here is a sort of review of the canoe. But it may be of a prototype because the specs seem different from those currently on the Souris website.

Glenn MacGrady said:

Never heard of this canoe, so I was curious.

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I do wonder if that is a prototype. That square bow is strange looking.
Below is the image used at the top of Souris River "Skeena" Page. It has rounded deckplates fitted close to the bow. I have paddled aluminum gunneled canoes for many miles without too many problems; a dent or small bend here or there when I mistreated my canoe. I do love the look and feel of wood gunnels, though they do come with the cost of extra weight.
The hull mounted seats are definitely different. It looks like there may be a metal "L" bracket under the seat frame- I wonder if the seat could be adjusted by shims?
Thanks for attaching the article. I wonder if that too may have been an early model or protype. The listed weight is over 10 lbs. heavier that the current whitewater layup listed on the Skeena. I also noted that it had a 2008 publication date. I think that is right around the year Souris River came out with this design.
Aren't canoes fun!

SouthernKevlar said:

That square bow is strange looking.
Below is the image used at the top of Souris River "Skeena" Page. It has rounded deckplates fitted close to the bow.

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It's odd that the top of the Skeena page has a pointy nose canoe, whereas the rest of the pictures are of the square nose bow. Also, assuming the bow of the top canoe picture is on the right, it doesn't look like it has four more inches of rocker than the stern . . . if any more.

SouthernKevlar said:

I have paddled aluminum gunneled canoes for many miles without too many problems

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I don't mind thin aluminum gunwales on a lake canoe, but the Skeena is marketed as a big load tripper for whitewater. I've seen what happens to even thick aluminum gunwales in canoes that bounce down rapids upside down. And I'll never forget trying to bash those gunwales semi-straight with a big rock in the New Hampshire snows.

I finally don't like (crackable) foam ribs on a whitewater canoe. This is a big, deep, high volume canoe that they have tried to make light by using foam ribs. I wouldn't trust that layup in rocky rapids in real wilderness with many hundreds of pounds in the canoe. Of course, if you portage the rapids, then the light weight is a blessing. But if you portage the rapids, then why would you want a blunt, highly rockered whitewater design?

I can see why they haven't sold many of these hulls. JMO.

Souris River is known for their user friendly tripping hulls, like the Quetico. Large, light canoes that are quite durable for the weight. It seems like the Skeena is their one attempt at a white water canoe, and it is the first time I have heard of it, and I live up here. Pretty sure I would want to test paddle it before plunking down the dollars. I don't buy their claims that it will be a fast hull on the flats, and how is that immense differential rocker going to work for front ferries and back ferries?

I am glad to see them still in business though, they had many people cancelling contracts with them earlier in the Covid thing because they let their personal beliefs manifest in their business.

Being an unusual design I definitely would not order one without getting a chance to paddle one first. When I chatted with Wayne at SR, he figured that since there is not much whitewater in their region, there were not many locals interested in buying a whitewater canoe. They do not have a very large distribution range; except for the outfitters that sell off their used canoes there are only two dealers in the US and none in Canada- Canadians can only buy direct from the factory! It is like a South Carolina canoe company trying to build a Tripping canoe; there is not a local market. The SR Tranquility that I own is the only Souris River canoe that I have ever seen locally.

There are a ton Souris river canoes up here in Northern Ontario, hard not to see them or paddle them. I have an older Quetico 17 in my fleet, I lend it out to first timers, it's that kind of canoe.

Not much whitewater in Northern Ontario? Lol, that's a strange statement to make, the place is full of it. However, you won't see many people running dedicated tandem whitewater canoes up here, it's tripping country, so most folks are in prospectors or the modern equivalents.