Skip to content

Open Canoe

A canoe is a relatively small human-powered boat. It is propelled by one or more people (depending on the size of canoe), using single-bladed paddles. The paddlers face in the direction of travel, in either a seated position, or kneeling on the bottom of the boat. Canoes are open on top, and pointed at both ends. They are generally fairly rigid.

Ambiguity over the word Canoe
Confusingly, the sport of canoeing, organised at the top level by the International Canoe Federation, uses the word canoe to cover both canoes as defined here, and kayaks (see here for a brief description of the differences between a kayak and a canoe). In fact, the sport of canoe polo is exclusively played in kayaks. This confusing use of canoe to generically cover both canoes and kayaks is not so common in American usage, but is common in England, Australia and presumably many parts of the world, both in sporting jargon and in colloquial speech. In these cirumstances, the canoe as defined here is sometimes referred to as an open, Canadian, or Indian canoe, though these terms themselves do have their own ambiguities.

Open Boat Techniques
Open Canoe Handling ***
Classic Bill Mason Instructional Videos ****
Local Paddles

 External links and sites
 SongofthePaddle.co.uk ***
 Path Of The Paddle