Assisted rescue of tandem sea kayak

@Celia said:
I would not expect to see a lot of canoes on Lake Superior compared to inland lakes and rivers. That does not mean anyone is water is wasting their time by earning how to work with them. Just that it is a skill which may have side benefits, like the parts that translate to dealing with tandems.

Oddly enough the only times that I’ve paddled on Superior has been in a canoe.12’ WW canoe (Dagger Rival) coming off the Dog and a Prospector 16’ coming off of the White. The paddle from the Dog to David Well’s place was pretty smooth. From the White to Hattie Cave was rather different - 2’ - 3’ swell with some rather confused seas off the point.

rival51
Not dissimilarly to the Maine Island Trail, we tend to forget that canoes were on these bigger waters a long time before modern kayaks found their way out there. I utterly respect someone with the skills to handle a canoe in bigger water, I frankly think it takes more skill than most current expedition-type kayaks.

The BCU eventually abandoned the canoe requirement in the way they had first implemented it, which made a certain level of canoe skills a requirement to pass onto a useful sea kayaking award. It didn’t work much better in Great Britain, even with a club system that meant people did not have to go out and get a canoe like in this country, than here. Last I knew it left two organizations behind in Scotland where there had been a split over it. Then there were the inconsistencies, which created a kind of built-in unfairness between how regions were implementing it.

But I do think it is a sincere shame that the BCU made such an unpleasant muck of it, and along the way their basic rescue class too depending on how a coach was interpreting the canoe requirements for participants. Because I really loved and appreciated being in classes where I got to work on rescues (self and assisted) for canoes as well as kayaks. It was not only fun but I think it a great way for the canoeists and kayakers to understand their limits and capabilities on the water in an emergency.