Canoe or kayak

Lately, I’ve been leaning towards the canoe. It’s a bit easier to transport and carry, a bit more comfortable, can carry more stuff and it’s all within reach not tucked away under a hatch cover. It’s not quite as fast as my kayak, but she does move along well. Always take a single blade with me, but I’ve grown so accustomed to a double blade and find it’s easier and faster.

Easier is likely a result of familiarity
You’ve been spending more time in the Kayak, so you’ve become more attuned to the necessary motions, reactions, sensations etc., associated with that craft. If you spend a similar amount of time in a canoe with a single blade, you’ll likely acquire a similar comfort level.



That having been said, achieving a high level of proficiency with a single blade requires somewhat more complex motor skills, so the learning curve may be a bit longer. Getting some feedback, or instruction from others at a canoe symposium, privately or at another venue can be extremely helpful.

A covered canoe is a kayak ?
For more insight

http://www.examiner.com/article/canoe-is-a-kayak

Think you paddle
That beautifully restored Summersong IIRC…with a “go somewhere” hull like that a double makes sense. A sport canoe design with some single blade skill applied (ala Marc O.) will provide a quite different experience. The grace and control of playing with a single blade is captivating to do and watch and it doesn’t have to be to the extreme level exhibited by Mr O to be so. The appearance of effortless grace is the attraction…plus it’s fun!

And you can still “go somewhere”!

( don’t dis me double bladers, not saying one is better than the other, just that the feel and appearance is different and I prefer singles).

By myself, kayak
With dog, wife, and daughter, canoe



Gulf fishing, kayak

Bay fishing, canoe

If you like lifelong learning
come and try canoe. As Marc said, the learning curve is different.



You will never need to discard your love of kayaking. Its like kids…have another and you have room to love the new kid too.

For me

– Last Updated: Jun-25-12 4:06 PM EST –

Speed, distance and endurance are what I enjoy when I paddle. Diddling along is not what I do. Even at those high speeds I attain, it still allows me to scan the nearby environs for flora and fauna, which I also enjoy. Point and shoot camera is always in my pfd pocket. The DSLR is fairly handy as well.

I bring along a bent shaft and a straight shaft, in case I decide to practice and if I paddled everyday I might find myself more inclined to do so. But I don't! Best I can manage is once or twice a week and I tend to make those paddles workouts.

The Summersong is a nice addition to my "fleet", for a quick, relatively modest distance paddle, it suits me fine. Easier to fish out of if I bring along some tackle.

Andy

Plus… Andy_S kin carry
more o’ dem koolers dat he keeps loosin’ waan he nods off in his’ems canoo.



FE

Then double blade away…
it will test your endurance more than a single given a comparable stroke rate. We all paddle for different reasons and that’s what makes it a great lifetime sport!

Sorry, ambiguous topic and semantics
Andy, does your topic mean to use the exclusive “or” or the inclusive “or”? If the former, you are asking us to make an exclusive (disjunctive) choice between canoes and kayaks. If the latter, you are allowing us choose both canoes and kayaks.



Exclusive OR: “The knight must decide whether to fight with a sword OR a spear.”



Inclusive OR: “Men OR women may watch the knights jousting.”



I also must from time to time annoyingly object to the false dichotomy between canoes and kayaks based on shape or appearance. The best examples of this false dichotomy are whitewater C-1’s, which are frequently the very same hulls as whitewater kayaks.



The true dichotomy in the paddling world is between canoeING, which means using a single blade for propulsion, and kayakING, which means using a double blade for propulsion. This is the only sensible dichotomy between the two variations of paddle sport, and this is how one distinguishes between the whitewater C-1er and kayaker.



Thus, I submit, Andy is kayaking with that double blade regardless of whether he is propelling his Artisan Millenium or his Sawyer Summersong. This is also apparent from the virtues he lists for his canoe: the virtues all relate to convenience, carrying capacity and comfort and none relates to the act of propulsion. All the propulsion virtues relate to the double blade.



The fact that Andy brings along a single blade is irrelevant unless he propels the craft with it. I brought along my cupped hands in my canoe yesterday, but that doesn’t mean I was swimming.



Sir Andy has embarked on noble and knightly quest by acquiring and paddling a Summersong hull. In order that his quest be not Quixotic and that he may ultimately discover the Holy Grail – single blade propulsion in a maneuverable kneeling hull – perhaps he can be first induced by the Lady of the Lake to single blade an outrigger canoe around a magical reservoir in the Garden State.






Will you be my…
Dulcinea? :wink:

i too
Purchased a summersong after getting super jealous of andys. I like it, but the kayak is still my first love. Especially single blading it. I cant stand single blading the canoe, the sit and switch thing is annoying.



Next is a decked canoe.



Ryan L.

an inducement?
It would be a pleasure to dance with your batik draped Lady of the Lake across the waters of that magical impoundment!



What vessel of mine can I entice you with?



Don

Captain James Cook observed
natives paddling alongside his ship using single blade paddles to propel their baidarkas. Do you suppose they were canoeing?

You too, Andy?!
It’s like Invasion of the Body Snatchers in here!









Kayakers! Don’t fall asleep!!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOipn_Taj2w

Can’t stand sit-and-switch?

– Last Updated: Jun-25-12 9:49 PM EST –

Learn traditional paddling instead. I don't like sit-and-switch either, but then, that's a method that works very poorly, or even not at all, with some of the kinds of canoes I like best.

Nah
It doesn’t become kayaking until he sits on the floor.



Single blade, seat four inches or more off the floor or kneeling = canoeing.



Double blade sitting on the floor = kayaking.



Any comingling of the two… well you know who you are, you figure it out.

Even the canoe and kayak
gurus can’t define canoe and kayak…so why should we even try?



Lets just go paddling! BTW does anyone have any plans for an ark?

Verily, alas, my noble steed …
… or, rather my ancient Dodge Ram Van pack mule, just got towed away to the repair stables this morn after many months of inactivity. It is the only beast worthy and with sufficient spread to carry the Tahoe Batiki.



My courier will notify you by vellum parchment when I am prepared to joust. I think it would be most merry to try the beast to which you affix a sail, and you can be the first to try Windpaddling a va’a.

i could.
But the summersong is meant for it, I think.



Ryan L.