White Water Canoe Designs

Series Summary

The canoe has been used for thousands of years to explore and trade upon waterways and seas. Though motorboats have, for the most part, replaced the canoe for commercial trade canoes and kayaks are very popular as recreational water craft. Additionally there remains many places that cannot be explored and whitewater that cannot be conquered in a motorized watercraft; not to mention that traveling by canoe or by kayak can be quieter and more tranquil than a boat with a loud gas or diesel engine. A canoe or kayak can be used by two or more persons depending on the size of the vessel. It is easy, fun, and sometimes comical to learn canoeing and kayaking, but it is important to learn necessary safety equipment and techniques before getting into the water.

In these free online videos you'll learn what gear & Equipment you'll need for basic white water canoeing. Expert Bruce Lessels shows you what types of clothes and fabrics are best to wear when canoeing, what sorts of personal safety equipment you'll need, like helmets and life vests, and what sorts of equipment you'll want to outfit your boat for safety and comfort. Bruce also tells you what features to look for when looking to rent or buy a canoe. And once you've got your canoe, Bruce also has tips to share to help you carry a canoe on top of your car, with a friend, or all alone.

Video Transcript

"When you start getting into solo white water canoing you'll see that there's a huge variety of boats you can use. All the way from very short play boats like this one up to longer boats that are more intended for tripping and for other sort of down more down river uses. The major differences in these boats have to do with length, width, and materials and often with rocker. And the rocker is the amount of the hull curves from one end to the other. This boat has a fair amount of rocker and it's also very short so that's what's going to make the boat spin very easily. It's going to turn relatively and it's going to be really great play boat it will surf really nice short waves well and it will spin into eddies. What it won't do is it won't go straight very easily, a longer boat such as this one that has much less rocker and a lot more of hull in the water than anyone time is going to much better in going a straight line. So it will be less frustrating for a beginner or someone trying to go down river it makes them distance on a river. The other element that makes it difference on these boats is width, if you look at this one for instance is a nice wide boat has nice wide center, a fairly flat bottom it's going to have a lot of initial stability so when your first sitting in the boat it's going to be fairly stable side to side. The contrast to that again is the zoom here which is super narrow and still has a fairly flat bottom but it's going to be fairly tippy side to side because there's not a whole lot of secondary stability there once you start to lean over. So no matter what boat you choose for solo white water canoing make sure its suited for the type of boating your going to do and the type of rivers your going to run and do some research ahead of time there lot's of varieties out there and lot's to choose from. "