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​Eric Sevareid on double blades in canoe

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There have been a few discussions about using a double blade in a canoe, and I am admittedly a fan. But I came across this in Canoeing With the Cree and had to share:

“Ahead of us we could see among the bobbing breakers a canoe with two men. Bucking the waves directly we caught them. They used double-blade paddles and we tried them for a short while, but gave up in disgust. On a smooth lake I suppose they are all right, but it rough weather they are unwieldly and in a rapid, of course, they would mean suicide”.

dang Eric, tell us how you really feel.
 
I don't understand people using kayak paddles in a canoe other than if you use it in a canoe that was design for that like those small canoes that you sit on the bottom.... I don't know, I just like the canoe paddle to much to use kayak paddles wile canoeing...
 
Eric, Your the man. To each his own, but I have to tip my single blade to Mike for sharing that, kinda says alot to me.:cool:
 
It's all about the rio to me, I've owned and operated whitewater kayak's, whitewater canoes, a flat water canoe, a couple fishing drift boats, an original Briggs whitewater dory and 16' and 18' foot catarafts and if I lived near big open water I'd definitely own a sexy sea kayak and do coastal runs :- )

........but I can't imagine paddling my canoe with a kayak paddle haha
 
There are old pictures of canoe races. From the 1890's Canoes . Propelled by double blades from a high kneel position. Study your history before commenting.

Of course the old boys club will be boyS
I'm not one of them. So I can paddle any way I want to being a girl
 
So what you're saying YC is that you paddle like a girl. (Ha!) That's a good thing.
My niece is a tough as nails young lady, is a medic for a local Regiment, and is indeed ladylike. She also has been a champion baseball player. She has a t-shirt that reads "I throw like a girl." I love it when she wears that shirt. Makes me laugh every time. Makes me proud too.
 
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My daughter is 8 years old and she does paddle like a girl... A girl that out paddle(technic wise) a lot of adults and that include a lot of men!! She does use a single blade. As for history, you are not teaching me anything about double blade being used in the older days for racing. Like you wouldn't teach me anything by telling me that first nation form Alaska coast paddling Bidarka's using single blade paddles! Don't assume people don't know anything!
 
The double blade allows increased cadence, hence more speed. It also eliminates corrective strokes, allowing folks to get out on the loose without the apprenticeship required to acquire single stick skills. Among downsides, the flash of the high blade alerts wildlife and there is no rest. The double grinds us to dust over time. The single blade proves more efficient over entire days, [Kruger, Landick], and requires, perhaps, a harder to master skill set.

When properly sized, ie short for vertical shaft strokes I suppose they are about equal in whitewater, I've seen white kayakers do things I've only imagined doing with a single stick. While I prefer single blades, I'm secure enough about my paddling that I do not need to denigrate others because they prefer a different paddle or boat.
 
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One day a few years ago, we saw a tandem where the guy in the back was using a single, the guy in the bow was using a double. There were flying down the lake. I have tried a double in a w/c but having shoulder issues it is not for me and I don't like being that wet. Speed kills man!

To each, their own.

Karin
 
Up here it has always been single blades cuz no one ever had kayaks. I tried tying two paddles together with rope once for fun and it was kind of cool but that was as far as I thought to take it. ( 40years ago). Racing? We dont race canoes, unless they are frieghters, and of course the York boats that use oars. Manitoba is like the guys that race lawn tractors or do mudbogging. Not heavily dependent on finesse.

I think the next paddle that I get will have a tank on top that you pour gasoline into.

Christy
 
I'm secure enough about my paddling that I do not need to denigrate others because they prefer a different paddle or boat.

Aw, come on Charlie, there's nothing wrong with some good natured ribbing, and besides, some of those smarmy yakkers bring it on themselves. On Facebook, I noticed a group called The Church of the Double-Bladed Paddle. I used to own a kayak when I was younger and could fit in one, and the only time religion was involved with the dirty double blade was when I was upside down in rapids praying for my life, trying to squeeze a couple of hundred pounds of bolognie out of a five pound hole.

And then there's that attitude found amongst so many entry level yakkers, that Holier than Thou thing. For instance, on the afore mentioned religious facebook page, one of the acolytes posts a picture of a canoe and says Single blade because I was too lazy to go get the kayaks. Makes me think of the Catholics in town who had to go worship in the Presbyterian church when their basement flooded. They did it, but held their noses the entire time. I know lots of yakkers who have such a strong religious animosity to the Single Blade supplicants that they would not set foot in a canoe. Good thing too, as the basic catechisms for making a canoe go straight were never taught in Yakkers Sunday School.

Now I'm not one to anthropomorphize my paddles or boats (indeed, the latest paddle I am building will be called Spanky), and I know canoeists have gone overboard, hanging their assorted pricey animal tail paddles on their living room walls. However, when a yakker meets a canoeists on the water, it's like the age old transubstantiation vs consubstantiation argument. The Yakker thinks his kayak has transformed him into Jesus Christ, while the canoeist knows his boat is merely a metaphorical vessel that propels him toward a religious experience.

No-one is trying to start the Hundred Years war here, and I'm certainly not Martin Luther hammering the Ninety Five Theses on the Catholic Church's door. However, in my own Presbyterian fashion, sometimes the little guy has to make his voice heard.

I bet Donald Trump is a Yakker, probably paddles some horrible looking plastic coffin. My second speculation is that Bernie Sanders is a one stick kinda guy, in a wood canvas canoe. Hillary is probably a yakker too, one of those ones that thinks because she can make a kayak go straight, she is master of the solo canoe and every other self propelled vessel in the world.

Pierre Trudeau and his son Justin, both leaders of the great country known as Canada, were and are both accomplished single stick paddlers.

There, religion, politics and kayaks all in one thread, I'll probably get banned.
 
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I'm glad you don't speak like that around the campfire...I'd a been gone first night...too many big words and you make too much sense. Good Thread.
 
One day a few years ago, we saw a tandem where the guy in the back was using a single, the guy in the bow was using a double. There were flying down the lake

Back when I paddled tandem I did that occasionally on open water when accompanied by a novice bowman. If we had to beat into a headwind it made for a fine solution. Business up front, party in the back.

To each, their own.

Amen. Paddling and tripping are not some math equation with one show-your-work path to the only correct destination, and my path is different in many ways.

I most often use a double blade. It’s not really a kayak paddle; it would be ridiculously long in any standard kayak. I prefer a big canoe, often a soloized tandem. Or a big decked boat. I use a sail whenever possible. I like rudders, even on canoes. I pack gear heavy and willingly pay the price for it. I don’t need to move camp every day, and on some of those days I don’t move far from camp.

Different path, same destination.
 
Sorry if I stere the pot... I probably forgot to put some of these;):):p:eek::cool:..... I use to guide sea kayaking tour and school group so I used my share of double blade;). You do what you want where you want with what work best for you:eek:, life is to short to be pissed at people that do different than you, me, them....;)
 
Sorry if I stere the pot... I probably forgot to put some of these;):):p:eek::cool:..... I use to guide sea kayaking tour and school group so I used my share of double blade;). You do what you want where you want with what work best for you:eek:, life is to short to be pissed at people that do different than you, me, them....;)

I don’t even know how to put those emoticons in, and just hope that folks realized that I am by nature sarcastic, and rarely pissed.

No worries. I have friends who worship at the Our Lady of the Single blade. They rip me mercilessly for the double blade, calling it “Schmegging”, which I thought was Yiddish for expired meat, but it really means something else.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=smegging

Wow, they really do get me, even if some of them are light-packing, svelt-boat paddling teetotalers.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
 
My wife and I have done a lot of mixed boat trips on big water with pretty much complete strangers.

What I have to say about this discussion is that:

"There's no disgrace in any job well done"

Young white water kayakers always crack my wife and I up on trips :- ) Ah to be 20ish again haha

I can tell you from experience when you and your wife and your 1200lbs, 18' cataraft are 'Maytaging' in a keeper hole big enough to hide a train car and some silly 19 year old kid comes in after you and says 'grab the loop bro' and pushes you out and then surfs back in the hole, dodging the cartwheeling boat to clip on a flip line. Their youngster antics in camp seem a lot more tolerable :- )

I guess it's all about your kind of boating. I never hear folks on the scout above Hance, Crystal or Lava discussing 'cadence'. Probably because the roar of the rapid is so loud you have to yell in each others ear to be heard haha

What comes to mind is the old saying (I like pithy old sayings) 'If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail' :- )

Personally I have a hard time trying to understand how to quantify the flatwater fretting in the real world of wilderness tripping. What if I dig for a snack and my paddle ends up 2° off plumb and I have to make an extra correction, throwing off my cadance and causing bubbles to form on my paddle and I miss my switch. Oh my! That was hairy! I must have lost 23 seconds and burnt 73 more calories back there :- ) Folks will be telling that story around firepans for years to come haha

Single blades, double blades, oars oh my! and horror of horror's I've been on few trips we tied all the boats together and putted along with an outboard :- O While heavily violating the 'no beer till boats are put away' rule haha.

So until you know the history of southwestern big water river tripping and done shots of Tequila out of your wife bikini top below Lava Falls rapid at 47k you have no place to comment haha

.......most of all don't take this too serious :- )
 
Well said JagDaddy! I love my self-made single blade; indeed there are tight spots in the southern waters I ply that just cannot be explored by those addicted to a double blade. And moreover, the artistry of the single blade well paddled is nothing less than contemplative. However, when I'm crossing a bay in the wind or riding the opposition wave where river current meets incoming tide, I want my self-made double in my hands. There is no place for elitism from either paddling camp. Again, "function" is the greatest beauty.
 
Some awesome posts here. Rob and Jag, your rants rattled me and made me laugh out loud!!!
I'm still stuck in a happy thought of doing shots of tequila from my wife's bikini top. I can't drink like I used to, and...
well, let's just leave it at that.
 
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