Canoes and paddles

Consensus
You will see more canoes powered with single blades, so there’s your consensus.



I sometimes pack along a double blade. My usage is much like previous posters: I use it in a head wind and maybe going up stream. They are also handy for propping up a tarp. I hate the drippage into the canoe.



There’s almost always some wind, and if it is from the side, you end up paddling mostly on one side of the boat. With the double, you swing a lot of extra weight and only use half the paddle. I also carry a single blade when I kayak, to use both for a change of pace and sidewind situations. But, that’s another topic.

There isn’t a concensus.
I use either single blade or double blade depending on my mood, energy level and situation/conditions.

I prefer higher seat in canoe with kayak
paddle - it’s easier to reach the water over the gunwales and a more vertical stroke is possible.

I use a 225cm, 21oz double in my solos
with normal kneeling height seats and prefer that to the same canoe with a lower seat - I get more power and easier gunwale clearance.



Yes, water drips on my head, just as it does when paddling my kayaks with double blade paddles, but more water drips in the canoe with a double blade than in the kayak, but feathering the blades at least 45 degrees greatly helps reduce the amount of drips in the boat for me.



Of course - I am using foot braces when using a double blade paddle in my solo canoes. Without foot braces, you can never achieve your maximum drive while sitting, whether using a single blade or double blade paddle.



YMMV.

Man I just turned on the net
and was going to jump all over Charlie.

Thanks bill

Nanci is the best bow paddler a man could ask for.



Jack L


Using a double blade in a race
Is against the rules. - that should tell you something.

I love paddling with a single.

Paddling with a double takes all the finesse out of it.

On the other hand some of the higher end narrow light weight ones are made to paddle with either.



Why not learn with a single (all the correction strokes, etc) and then decide for yourself.



jack L


C-1 Rec
Actually Jack, in the 90 Miler in C-1 rec you are required to use a double bladed paddler whether you paddle a solo canoe or solo kayak.

Bill

Hey! Look at the dweeb!
usin’ the kayak paddle in his canoe!

HAW! HAW!



Seriously, the LAST thing I want when I’m powering into the wind is that stupid extra blade getting knocked around by the gusts.



There is no consensus. But I know what I like.

Magic
I forgot my favorite reason for using a single blade, best captured in a quote I only partially remember:



“There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe…”



I don’t feel the magic from a double blade. Well, maybe the Greenland paddle, but again, I get off topic, and I don’t use a GP in a canoe.



And a final note on “consensus” is that it is generally defined as majority, but also a general agreement with no strong dissent. I think if you do a count, the majority of canoeists are single bladers. However, there will be strong dissent from the non-majority, so in a sense, consensus is unattainable.

Magic
Okay, I started to give my take on this topic earlier today and then backed out. But at that time I was going to write something about the “magic” that Chip mentions. To me, the magic of single-blade paddling is that feeling that the boat can be made to do just about any useful maneuver (far more than just the “turning” that double bladers usually limit themselves to) at a moment’s notice, and that’s part of the paddler-boat connection that some people are talking about when they say “canoes have soul”. There’s that feeling of CONSTANT connection with the boat and water that comes from the need for infinitely variable correction actions. By comparison, double blading a canoe makes it look like one of those old-time windup mechanical toys. Windup toys do not have soul.



That said, I can understand why there are so many solo canoers who just don’t want to learn how to do well with a single blade. It does take a while to get reasonably good at it. What I don’t understand at all is the practice of using double-blade paddles when paddling tandem. That’s a case of “just not getting it” if there ever was.

Don’t use a double blade in a canoe!
If you don’t want to take the time to learn how to make the boat sing with grace while using a single blade, then just mount some oars!



Oars are not graceful, but you will go faster and turn faster with them starting from day one.



Canoe rowing is so easy that I cannot figure out why it is not more popular.

Take yourself back
to the 1890s and the Charles River in Boston. You’ll see tandem canoes with a decked-out damsel in the bow, complete with a parasol to keep the sun off her. She is not paddling.



In the stern we see a guy in a blazer, white slacks and a bowler hat. He is moving the whole shebang with a double bladed paddle.



Some years later, the woman put down the parasol and picked up a paddle. The guy in the back put down the double blade and picked up a single blade. Both wore sensible clothing for what they were doing.



I believe the next time we routinely saw double blades in canoes was after the solo canoe hit the paddling scene.



Peter


Hmmm
Actually, I just saw some photos of that sort of thing, couples in their Sunday best, with only the guy in the stern paddling. They all had single-blade paddles.

Hey that was me a few years later
At Norumbega Park right by the Totem Pole.

I was in the stern with my charcoal gray flannel pants, my pink and gray knitted argyle sweater, and my white bucks doing a proper “J” stroke while my pretty young damsel was in the bow. It was love (of paddling) at first sight.



jack L

The single canoe paddle excels
in control,

whereas,

the double canoe/kayak paddle excels in consistent power.

I’ll profess my ignorance,
until I visited this website I had only knew of one person who used a kayak paddle in a canoe. That bein’ said I ain’t a boat snob. So I say “try it out and see what you like.” Who cares what other folks think. I know I like kayakin with two blades and I like c1in’ and canoein’ with one. As far as bein’ a Nancy, we used to say in jest “twice the paddle, half the man.” Total macho bs but I had to compensate for being slower and cause I could barely walk after kneelin’.

I’ll pick a double everytime in the
tidal flats of the Everglades. Heck there isn’t a single blade around that won’t pillory in the mud when there is six inches of water under the boat.



On Lake Superior I ignored the double. I used a little Zav bent shaft single for most of the 250 miles.



Agreed…things are way more precise with the single.

It’s a matter of preference, period.
Canoes have been paddled with double paddles to a lesser or greater degree since at least the 19th century (the Rob Roy, the Wee Lassie, early racing canoes, etc.).



Kayaks have been paddled with single and double blades since God knows when by the Inuit and other indigenous peoples.



Just use what you like and forget about it. Enjoy canoeing. And if you like to paddle using an eight-foot pine 2X4 from the Home Despot, well, so be it.

You must have been there at mid tide
Heck, at low tide, you need to get out of the boat, put on a pair of snow shoes (so you don’t sink up to you hips) and pull the boat!



Jack L

the Magic of the Canoe
Welll…

anybody who thinks there’s no Magic in a double blade hasn’t seen Karen Knight (or any other highly skilled paddler) kayaking. The magic is in the skill of the paddler rather than the tool they use.

I’ve never been more than a slam bam get it done double blader. So I certainly feel the Magic more with my single blades.

I’ll argue that folks double blading a canoe are less interested in developing that skill than they are at getting it done. Which is why I’ve never seen Magic from a double blade canoeist. But I’d be surprised if there are no double blade canoeists who find the Magic.

As the previous poster notes it really does come down to personal preference.

But I’ll still point and laugh at anybody double blading an open boat.

Unless they show me the Magic.