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Part 3: The ribs, headboard and stems

Part 2: Stitching the bottom and frame

(Edit: Part 0 video, building the gunwale frame and seat, is at post #9 below. You may want to watch that first.) Part 1: Bending the hull

Hans-Georg Wagner, a sculpturer and wood designer in eastern Germany (Cottbus), has been building beautiful plywood frame canoes since 1994 and paddles since 2004. First, is an overview video of the maiden voyage of a completed canoe, which Hans-Georg paddles with a combination of "Canadian...

So, to summarize so far for a straight paddle, Fedex seems to be the most expensive at $75, USPS Ground Advantage the least expensive at $25, cost can be minimized by reducing Dimensional Weight (cubic inches of the box)*, small businesses can get discounted rates that are less than retail rates...

I can't keep up with everyone's canoes. Do you consider your Kestrel the sport canoe, Tom, or is it some other canoe? Yeah, I love to do drawing and prying sideslips as I paddle under tree branches close to shore. Playing in rapids you can dominate or play-maneuvering in flatwater makes a...

I hope recped took Tom Foster's carving the inside circle course. There sure is a lot of water entering that reservoir and zillions of small lakes all around. Wonder if there are other boats there.

Good for you, Robin. I was paddling in Massachusetts with the Norumbega Chapter of the WCHA last weekend, and Steve Lapey spoke well of you and says hi. He was paddling bow in a red Chum tandem and there was also a red Chestnut Playmate there made mostly of sassafras, which I can't...

Since my OP in this thread, I have acquired a 29 lb. Swift Keewaydin 15 solo canoe in carbon fusion layup. It has jumped to the top of my list and not only because it my lightest and most liftable canoe for my ancientness. It has lovely and efficient glide, and is well behaved in wind and...

I did this time. It does sound funny. As I said, I almost never use an axe at home and never on canoe trips. I use saws, machetes and knives. They do what I need to be done. Last weekend was two canoe day trips with two nights in a campground in New Hampshire. I bought some split firewood...

I agree. My goal is not that every canoeist becomes an expert in every aspect of canoe sport, but to create and maintain a site that has available information on many aspects of canoe sport. Like a menu in a good restaurant. Erik, I consider you—a flatwater canoeist, whitewater canoeist...

The purpose of this thread is not controversy, but rather to stir up some interest and perhaps motivation to learn additional boat control skills that can be useful in various types of canoe sport, including the kind of canoe sport tripping you and Chat GPT have in mind. As for the adventitious...

Here is another video that explains and illustrates how to paddle carving circles more pithily than does Tom Foster. It is based on Andrew Westwood's "2x4" explanatory meme. The point is that a whitewater paddler seated at the pivot point of the canoe can control and keep adjusting the...

In his videos, Tom Foster always talks about paddling in (carving) circles. That is, he teaches that all paddling in whitewater, including forward paddling, is actually paddling along the diameter of a circle, which can be a very tight diameter or a very large diameter circle. However, in my...

Whitewater freestyle is for whitewater experts. First, the basics of whitewater boat control must be learned: How to read moving water; how to feel and react to currents, current differentials and waves buffeting the hull; how to J-lean (heel) your canoe for turns and water avoidance; how to...

"Freestyle" has a second and completely different meaning when it comes to whitewater boat control competitions. Here are two videos of whitewater freestyle competitions, a discipline which emphasizes three-dimensional canoe control techniques on surfing waves and holes. First, a European...

Olympic high kneel sprint canoeing uses different body mechanics and the races are only 200, 500 and 1000 meters long. The body mechanics have always favored long, straight paddles as far as I know. But no one paddles that way, or in those boats, or for those short a distances except for Olympic...

I don't use axes for anything. If I did, I wouldn't take one on a canoe trip. Too heavy and cumbersome for my preference and needs. A Silky pruning saw can cut any reasonable diameter firewood log easily and fast. Batoning such campfire-size logs with a full tang fixed blade knife (or short...

On the distaff side of U.S. flatwater canoe control, there was the incomparable Karen Knight, who was the national interpretive freestyle champion from 1995-2000. Both Jonathan Hammond and Karen Knight (as her opening move) implement the "Hiding Harold" 360° heeled gimbal, which is named...