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More than 95% of my marathon canoe races see me as the bow paddler, nearly all in a voyageur or C4 canoe. While cruising open water, I set the cadence, as most bow paddlers do with hit and switch as called by the stern paddler, who controls overall direction of track. I occasionally provide...

While true bear protection is necessary both for the health and safety of the camper, but perhaps moreso for the protection and life of bears. As the slogan goes: "a fed bear is a dead bear", eventually too often the case. In most cases, the protection you need is from the destructive power of...

The answer for me is absolutely never does my paddle (straight wood ottertail or carbon bent) ever pry or touch my canoe in any manner unless it is laying inside the hull, when not being used. My solo power stroke with vertical shaft, both hands "stacked" over the water, goes from the catch in...

I don't know about which year might be a record, but it was quite intense during the 2009 Yukon 1000 mile canoe race. Smoke on the river began while we were still in the Yukon. Although this photo of a pyrocumulous cloud in which a nearby fire was forming its own thunderhead was taken just over...

I've mentioned this before. For the first ever Yukon River 1000 mile race in 2009, the race organizers required that each racer must begin the race with 20Kg of food on board for each paddler!! You could not count the weight of water to make dry food edible. An externally unsupported race by...

My brother, a professsional hot air balloon pilot and racer, lived on that lake in the 1980's.

I've used the tubular webbing method on all of my cars since I installed it on my first Subaru in 2004. Many hundreds of miles to tripping, races, and training sessions through the Adirondacks, and thousands of miles to the Yukon and return. No damage ever occurred. When not holding down a...

There are a few paddle maker sponsors, but also more than a few makers of solo-rec size canoes. The northernforestcanoe.org now operates the annual 41 year old Adirondack 90 mile classic canoe race, but has been in charge only since past 3-4 years, and also a few other races in NY and New...

I'll add an additional advantage of long blade wood paddles, otter, voyageur and the like, especially if they are finished with thin knife slicing edges. If when cruising you favor the Canadian/Northwoods correction stroke, as do I, with underwater recovery, these paddles are what will give the...

Thankfully GRB remains in Canton, NY. Gene and John Newman manufacture exactly equivalent performance paddles, Always have been generally a fair bit less expensive than ZRE. https://www.grbnewmandesigns.com/paddles-and-accessories

Make that argument to Charlie Wilson, not me. Two sets of gunwale stops properly firmly placed both in front of and behind the widest mid-point of most canoes positively prevents the canoe from sliding or twisting not only side to side, but also neither forward nor rearward. Properly tightened...

I believe the advantage of the long blade ottertail is, in expert hands, the leverage applied at the tip is useful for certain maneuvers.

Charlie Wilson has been heard several times saying that a stern tie down is not normally needed unless you are in the habit of speeding in reverse 70mph down the highway. I don't usually think I need a rear tie-down, except when I carry a C4 or voyageur long boat.

If you want to paddle single blade, then you would have to enter the canoe C1 race class in a pro, stock, or open class canoe. Talking the Adirondack 90 mile race here, but other races generally follow the same ACA guidelines. You may also enter a non-competitive race class that is open to...

Untold in marketing and sales pitches is those relatively short solo canoes relate better to kayak paddlers crossing over from the dark side to try theiri hand in a solo canoe. There is little to no learning curve to use a familiar kayak paddle in a canoe that amounts to being an open deck...

I absolutely agree. although I use my carbon bent much more than my wood straight paddles, it is because most of my solo time on the water is spent training and conditioning to go fast than simply cruising just for fun. There are so many more and different kinds of strokes and linked strokes to...

built from this image

I just had a large new garage built at camp last year with a wall of canoes on cedar post racks, made by the same local carpentry guys who make all of my camp inside furniture the same way. Since this photo I have installed a second set for canoes I have for now stored in another shed by the...

Equally, or even more true with a straight blade. After the strong power applicaton phase is complete at the hip, there may be a very sllight extended rear carry through before the blade is sliced up and outward as it exits smoothly without any splash and is feathered through the air to make...

A seemingly small factor indeed for most considerations, except of course during a tight race when 350m over an 8 hour period may or may not make any real difference in a finishing sprint, all else being equal. But rarely is all else equal. More than 110 paddling hours in a 1000 mile river race...