Hi,
I’m Marco and I’m from north Italy; I live in Como Lake’s area. I’m interested by canadian canoe.
I’ve experience of sea kayak; considering that few months ago was born my first child I’ve started thinking about a new boat for future family excursions.
I have excluded sit-on-top or multi-seater kayak because I think that could impose too stringent limits on us compared to our sea kayaks. A Canadian canoe on the other hand could broaden our horizon.
But there is a problem: in Italy there is a great kayaker community but single blade paddler’s are very rare. I'm in a big club full of sea kayaker, white water kayaker, slalom kayaker, agonist kayaker but but none with much experience in open canoe.
I’ve found an open canoe school on a river near Milan, it looks good and I’ve intention to take lessons as soon as possible. But I will need a canoe for myself.
As you can imagine trying, seeing or even just asking for advice about a purchase is not easy in my country. There is only a dealer in Italy that can import a few boats a year from NovaCraft and Esquif. So you have to order a boat from a catalogue and wait an huge amount of time or try to find something that fits among the few boats in stock.
In the school I was talking to I've seen lots of “Prospector” from both brands but it looks like a canoe ideal for rivers but not for open waters (lakes in my area are subject to sudden winds) and this kind of boats could not be ideal.
I’m looking for a canoe that could be paddled both solo or tandem (especially tandem + little child), mostly for lakes but occasionally in rivers up to class II (no white water).
They suggested me to consider a length of 16’ especially Huron and Avalon from Esquif but reading some reviews seems also NovaCraft Pal could be a good idea (albeit much more expensive).
Making a little travel in France or Germany I could also consider other brands like Gatz, Armerlite or evenLinder's aluminum canoe.
Here is it my long, long question. I’m ready for read your opinions.
PS: sorry for my english, I was not good at school ... and it's been years since school!
I’m Marco and I’m from north Italy; I live in Como Lake’s area. I’m interested by canadian canoe.
I’ve experience of sea kayak; considering that few months ago was born my first child I’ve started thinking about a new boat for future family excursions.
I have excluded sit-on-top or multi-seater kayak because I think that could impose too stringent limits on us compared to our sea kayaks. A Canadian canoe on the other hand could broaden our horizon.
But there is a problem: in Italy there is a great kayaker community but single blade paddler’s are very rare. I'm in a big club full of sea kayaker, white water kayaker, slalom kayaker, agonist kayaker but but none with much experience in open canoe.
I’ve found an open canoe school on a river near Milan, it looks good and I’ve intention to take lessons as soon as possible. But I will need a canoe for myself.
As you can imagine trying, seeing or even just asking for advice about a purchase is not easy in my country. There is only a dealer in Italy that can import a few boats a year from NovaCraft and Esquif. So you have to order a boat from a catalogue and wait an huge amount of time or try to find something that fits among the few boats in stock.
In the school I was talking to I've seen lots of “Prospector” from both brands but it looks like a canoe ideal for rivers but not for open waters (lakes in my area are subject to sudden winds) and this kind of boats could not be ideal.
I’m looking for a canoe that could be paddled both solo or tandem (especially tandem + little child), mostly for lakes but occasionally in rivers up to class II (no white water).
They suggested me to consider a length of 16’ especially Huron and Avalon from Esquif but reading some reviews seems also NovaCraft Pal could be a good idea (albeit much more expensive).
Making a little travel in France or Germany I could also consider other brands like Gatz, Armerlite or evenLinder's aluminum canoe.
Here is it my long, long question. I’m ready for read your opinions.
PS: sorry for my english, I was not good at school ... and it's been years since school!