canoe instructional video from 1930s

I’m sure many here have seen this. The video and audio quality leave a bit to be desired but if you haven’t seen it it is worth watching:



http://canoelondon.com/canoeing-by-reg-blomfield/



Included in the video is what is now standard fare such as sculling draws, wedges, boat-over-boat rescues, and solo reentry techniques (the guy is really good at using the “slosh out” method of emptying the boat), as well as some whitewater techniques such as attainments, upstream ferries and bow surfing.



Some of the tricks include gunwale dancing, head stands on the deck, stand up paddling, jumping over a tandem canoe like a speed bump, seal launching a tandem canoe off a high dock, and even unassisted landing of a tandem canoe onto a high dock.

I liked that
Of course, I like “old stuff” in general, but that was fun. Besides the general skills and tricks (how about that canoe flip?), it was even nice to see how nimble and “light handling” some of those wood/canvas canoes were. Makes the average tandem canoe that’s made of Royalex (or worse, poly) really look crudely shaped and sluggish by comparison.


reentry
I think the only person I have seen reenter a boat from the water, unassisted, with greater apparent ease than this guy was Nolan Whitesell.



But from all I have been told, Dick Wooten was better at stand up paddling in whitewater. He stood on the gunwales.

Imagine
I like that video.



Canoeing skills are ancient. Imagine how good the paddlers must have been 2000 years ago. Then, paddlers weren’t just weekend dabblers like today. They were playing, hunting, fishing, traveling and living out of canoes all their lives, every day since they were infants.



The Bronze Age canoeist probably could do everything Reg Blomfield could do by the time he was six years old.



I believe those ancient paddlers traveled every water body they encountered in all their vast migrations, including major portions of the oceans.

mortality rates
They were a bit higher too those days.

Origin of Capistrano Flip ?
Wonder is something like the Capistrano Flip technique

originated long ago, under a different name ?



http://www.canoekayak.com/canoe/capistranoflipcanoe/

Thanks for the link!
Nice video, enjoyed viewing the tricks :slight_smile:

reminds me stuff Dad used to do
in my only canoe, an OT Camper in heavy poly. We were at the beach together and was dancing all over hull and gunwales. My favorite was what he called “porpoising” by standing near end and pumping with legs to propel the boat forward sans paddle. But then he sailed his homemade canvas canoe all over Narragansett Bay after returning from WW2. I did find the background music far better than most contemporary U-Tubes.

enjoyed it a bunch , thanks …
… the narrator and music background was perfect too .