any suggestions on a solo canoe for my son, he is 13, looking at wenonah argosy and a bell yellowstone solo, mostly river paddling, class 1 and class 2 ?
How
How experienced is he? If he is short on experience consider a canoe with some width for stability.
A big NO to more width
– Last Updated: Jun-10-12 8:36 AM EST –
No offense but I have to disagree with that for three reasons. First, he's 13. He's small, and it would be a mistake to make the boat wider and heavier. What he really needs is a boat that fits him. Second, being small, he'll be able to shift his weight all over the place in a narrow boat without tipping. My first solo canoe was a Wenonah Vagabond, and I was warned about how tippy it would be. Darned thing felt like an aircraft carrier to me, impossible to tip over as long as my head stayed inside the gunwales, and I probably weigh twice as much as a fit 13-year-old. Third, the kid will learn quickly enough how to keep the boat upright. The biggest problem is likely to be whether Dad is lucky enough that the kid will "take" to canoeing and stick with it through the stage of learning to paddle in a halfway-decent fashion, but I only say that based on "average" kids - I don't know this one. Kayaks are a lot easier for kids, and are more easily found which fit them well, but it would warm this semi-geezer's heart if the kid ended up in the right boat and learned to love paddling the thing.
Yea -
where is it that the love of canoeing comes from? My parents did none of it. I fell in love with it. They still wonder what I see in it.
Could it be that some of us have a need to do something our parents did not do? I wonder sometimes if it would have been better for me to wait until the kids were clamoring to go canoeing instead of introducing them as I did. I think the first buggy and wet trip we did had a bad impact.
being 13 is such
– Last Updated: Jun-10-12 10:22 AM EST –
an advantage. 1) I'm sure he's enthusiastic 2) Kids learn so quick it's incredible. 3)kids get bored easily...my relaxation is my sons Aaron's boredom.
Keep this in mind when looking at canoes.
Funny, my son was 5 when we did our first tandem river run. Cold, wet,long, flipped twice. I was looking forward to finishing, he loved it. He became an incredible single blader, now, 13 years later, will only paddle 3-4 (or flatwater where we sit as opposed to kneel) as cl.2 isn't worth the knee/ankle pain to him.