Getting Kids into Canoeing

Here's an article on the subject . . .


. . . but it would be more interesting to read some advice and experiences from you folks. You can include how you yourselves got interested in canoeing as a kid, and pictures of kids in canoes are always popular.

I got interested in canoeing because I spent every summer at my grandparent's lake house on North Pond in Woodstock, Maine, and they got a Grumman when I was eight-years-old. I messed around with it almost every day of every summer for 10 years. I introduced my kids to canoes at the same family lake house in Maine, plus on day and overnight canoe trips in New York, Florida and Connecticut.

The only picture I have digitized of my kids in a canoe is this one of my daughter, at about 12 years old in 1986, in my Mad River Explorer on North Pond.



North Pond is about three miles from Bryant Pond, where the Maine Canoe Symposium is now held, and which was the last town in America to have hand-crank telephones, which had to be used to contact a switchboard operator in order to make a call. The hand-crank system lasted until October 1983.

But my grandfather didn't allow a telephone in the house nor a TV when they were invented. He told us, "Those gadgets interfere with healthy country living. Go outdoors. Chop wood for the fireplace. Go swimming. Go fishing. Go canoeing!"

He was not wrong.

I got interested thru the Boy Scouts and learned a lot during my years as an lifeguard / aquatics instructor. The local Scout council also maintained (I think two) trailers full of aluminum canoes that the troops could borrow (maybe rent- I wasn't interested in specifics at that age) and our local troop took advantage of that regularly on Loyalhanna Creek or the Kiski River (the Conemaugh River nearest my home was pretty nasty with acid mine drainage in those days).

Today, they've cleaned up the river a lot, I've had the kids paddling since they were fairly young and my oldest two seem to enjoy it. Like the Harry Chapin song, however, their lives have become busy and I've only managed to get one (my son) on an overnight trip so far. (I think my oldest daughter would fall in love with Northern Ontario if she'd slow down a little)

I've recently become a grandfather so I'll bide my time until the newness wears off and mom & dad need a break, at which time I'll take the rug rat for an hour walk by the river, then a weekend backpacking trip on the ridge and, eventually, a month or so in the boreal forest. That is, of course, assuming I can convince the meathead father who tells me "Canada's dangerous" (like he's been there) .

In the meantime, I'll get out when I can, attempt to make it look as cool as I can manage and try to get the neighborhood kids to believe that I'm this cool guy who takes these awesome canoe trips and that they can too. If all goes well, I might be able to recruit an entire generation away from plastic 'yaks and into the fellowship of the single blade.

Or maybe I'll go all Horace Nebbercracker on 'em... I haven't really decided yet.

Boy Scouts and church camp got us interested in canoeing.
Be willing to teach kids the sport.

My kids (now nine and eleven) have been paddling with me since they were 4 or 5. I never pushed it, but always asked if anyone wants to come went I go out. I usually get one taker for a trip around our small lake. I have made paddles for them that are size appropriate so that they can participate and feel like they are a part of it. My son, the 9 yr old, recently asked to go on his first canoe camping trip and we did that last weekend. He had a run in with a grumpy local black bear when he was younger and has been nervous to sleep outside. So again, I never pushed it. We went to a local lake where a vehicle was close by in case it didn’t pan out. He had a great time and is asking to go to the ADKs this fall.
My daughter last year asked if I would make her a solo canoe and I have been slowly getting it finished. I don’t see her going on trips, but I hope we paddle often.

Even if they aren’t fellow trippers as they get older, they will remember the times with their Dad and hopefully keep paddling.


Bob

I fully support the idea of age appropriate paddles. Nephew Hayden started paddling at two the first time he was in a canoe. He didn't have a paddle, but leaned over the side of the canoe and snagged a stick floating in the water and proceeded to use it as a paddle. Here he is four and trying out his second, longer paddle after giving his first one to his little sister. Note that length is only half of the equation, Shaft and grip size for small hands is most important IMHO.

Hayden is now 13 and paddling both canoe and kayak. He listens to suggestions about technique because he likes to go FAST.

Besides small paddles for small hands I think a relaxed attitude in the adults is very important. We take youngest kids out in our biggest, most stabile canoe. They have free range of the boat and end up leaning over the side to get their hands in the water. They understand quickly what their movement does to rock the canoe. There is never any " sit still" commands from us. When kids are older and swimming we go out and capsize the canoe and play with it, get under it when overturned, climb around on it. Lots of fun on a hot day.

My canoeing days started at 10 when dad brought a Lund aluminum to a lake house we rented. Scouts helped me learn better technique with a good Canoeing Merit Badge instructor at summer camp. Our troop had a Voyageur Patrol of older scouts that went on canoe trips, alternating years with BWCA/Quetico and Namekagan/St. Croix trips. It kept the older scouts in the troop to teach skills to the younger scouts and something for the younger ones to aspire to.

Canoeing has been an important part of my life for 63 years!

I canoed with my father a few times/year as a kid fishing the local river and I paddled a couple times solo on the lake to go fishing but as soon as I had a driver's license it was goodbye canoes and hello motorized fishing boats. I took up paddling again in my mid-20's.

I grew up in a small rural town (pop. 250) where we kids had free run of the place. I spent a lot of time walking the railroad tracks, catching minnows and crawdads in the creek, and fishing in the gravel pits and river. I had a couple friends that did these things with me and others who didn't. Now, as grown ups, I know of only 1 or 2 that really seek outdoor recreation and a couple that want nothing to do with it.

No kids of my own. I have a few that I hang out with on a regular basis. I've taken most of them canoeing and kind of leave it up to them. If they seem to enjoy it and show interest then I'm happy to foster it. If they seem to enjoy other things then we do other things.

A fairly common theme seems to be people (re)discovering the great outdoors in their early 20's, maybe even after being exposed to it as a kid and rejecting it. I'm content to just show them what's out there and let them immerse themselves at their own pace.

Alan

There’s two seasons in my household, hockey and canoeing. My kids live for their yearly canoe trip. It’s a necessary escape from the city life, and they love the swimming and fishing under waterfalls, building forts, the rush of running whitewater, cooking and playing with the campfire, They all went into the bush as newborns and the hardships of travelling in the far north was normalized before they could really start walking. Good equipment made it possible, bug tents, good rain gear and lots of warm clothes, big spacious canoes with their own seating and space to move around and good food made all the difference.
They’re finally getting to the age where they are starting to pull their own weight, so the fun is really just getting started!!

I paddled a beat up aluminum canoe once a year at church camp 3 years in a row when I was a kid and didn’t touch one again until I decided to purchase a canoe and bought an old Curtis Northstar at the solo canoe rendezvous a few years ago, now in my 30’s.

I wanted to start an activity that I could enjoy with my growing family, and also one that would slow my brain down and get me outdoors where I love to be.

My wife and I put all 3 kids in that Northstar from the beginning and haven’t looked back.

I think the oldest was 3 and the twins were 1-1/2 when we got the Northstar. They would bring their mermaid Barbie’s and hold them in the water and swim them next to the boat as we paddled.

We soon acquired and refurbished a Mad River Explorer

I made right sized paddles for the kids out of some scrap pine I had in the basement, and they started trying to help and mimic our paddle strokes.


Naps are also a regular occurrence. I built a custom bench seat so the kids could sit next to each other in the explorer.

We loved it so much as a family that I ordered a Souris River Quetico 18.5 with the 3rd bench seat and a drop in seat so that everyone could be comfortable and we could bring gear along for family camping trips.

My spur of the moment decision to join this site and ask about canoes, led to me going to the WPASCR event, meeting Dave Curtis and buying my Curtis Northstar. This evolved into paddling days with the family, more canoes, more memories, new friends (@NoelCanoeDad), and ultimately the decision to make a big life change and move to the Adirondacks to be closer to the activities that my family loves to do together. My kids love the canoe, they ask me when we are going next and when we are going camping, fishing, or swimming every day.
My oldest is 5 years old now, and the twins are 3. All of them have gone canoe camping. All of them will hold a paddle and try to help move the canoe, and all of them love the outdoors. The secret to getting kids to love canoes isn’t a secret. Just put them in one and go for a paddle. The rest will fall into place…

What a great story. In the past few years, I have had my doubts about the younger generation getting involved in the outdoors, but your story gives me hope that they will carry on. Good job to you and your wife.