I am one who argues against carving up canoeing (= single blading) into terminological or pedagogical boxes such as freestyle canoeing, flatwater canoeing, quiet water canoeing, river canoeing, whitewater canoeing, Canadian style canoeing. To me it's all just canoeing--controlling a hull by receiving and applying pressures on a single blade paddle in any sort of water.
Of course, we do need to communicate and teach constrained curricula, so some level of terminology is necessary. What some people call freestyle today was originally called sport canoeing by Patrick Moore and Mike Galt in the late 70's and early 80's. The word "sport" really mean "sporty"--as in maneuvering a sporty solo canoe in sporty ways just for fun. Paddling a Grumman or a big tandem solo was like "trucking". The new batch of dedicated solo touring canoes of the mid to late 70's were analogized by Moore to sports cars--though he seems to admit in his memoirs that the ideal sport canoe was never actually designed and built.
Mike Galt then put a boombox on the shores of the Hillsborough River in the mid-80's and began paddling to music. The artistic era began. What became to be called "interpretive freestyle" was formalized and competitionized. I didn't see the artists of the 90's other than Karen Knight, but she still seemed to be the best of the women I've seen after 10 years of retirement in 2010 when I saw her give an exhibition.
About this time, having familiarized myself with the current scene, I formed the opinion that, somewhere between the late 80's and late 90's, interpretive competition had become the giant tail that wagged the entire freestyle curriculum. The focus was all about turns, turns, turns. (Okay, some sideslips too.) Tryon Lindabury, the many times national tandem champion, called it "drilling holes in the water". The primary emphasis was on maximizing turns not only with paddle strokes, but with (almost mandatory) heeling to the rails, pitching the hull bow down with weight shifts, and transverse cross positions. These were the things that got the most points in interpretive competitions; ergo, it seemed, these were the things that were heavily emphasized in the core freestyle curriculum.
The influence of interpretive competition also affected boat design. The standard touring canoes of the "sport canoeing" era were displaced by more specialized "freestyle" hulls that could be turned and heeled more easily. Rocker increased and depth decreased--so as to more easily "rail" a canoe at a fairly low and safe angle. Some of these canoes are not particularly seaworthy as solo tripping or even touring canoes, at least in my opinion.
All of that was an elegant way to teach maximal turning control in flat water. No doubt. But the giant tail--the interpretive freestyle exhibitions and competitions--have become sparsely attended if not moribund. And most of the recent participants have been, by simple observation, AARP if not Medicare members.
I asked myself and some of the participants: How relevant is a curriculum of canoeing that is dominated by the maximal scoring maneuvers of an artistic/interpretive exhibition that no one but a few old people currently participate in?
Back to terminological and pedagogical boxes. If we subtract away interpretive competition from freestyle canoeing, what then is the residue? What is non-interpretive, non-artistic, non-Karen Knight "freestyle"? To me, it's just advanced flat water canoeing.
I note that the regional symposiums that used to be called "Freestyle Symposiums" have now been re-branded as "Canoe Symposiums". Good. I vote to limit the use of the word "freestyle" to the artistic/interpretive exhibitions. The symposiums should just teach the practica of advanced flatwater canoeing, which I understand they currently do with a rich curriculum that goes beyond the drilling of holes in the water.
As one who is even more interested in keeping the single blade art alive than I am in terminology, I recommend these regional canoe symposia as the best available teaching venues for learning the ancient but dying art of the the flatwater single blade.
I do hope there is a course in these symposiums that teaches the five or six basic single sided correction strokes. Being able to go straight on flatwater in wind and waves--reflexively and autonomically--should be the first learning priority for any canoeist. Turning is secondary if not tertiary or quaternary. Otherwise, kayaking will continue its genocidal advance. Literally anyone can go straight with a double blade, almost right away.