I was talking to a couple of older paddlers recently when one of them asked me if I knew who Mike Galt is. I did. He said that he knew Mike Galt long ago, and didn’t realize until years later of his importance to the canoeing world. When I got home, I Googled Mike Galt to see if he was still alive. He is not. Pat Moore wrote his obituary.
It is definitely worth reading whether you knew of the man or even whether you’re a paddler or not.
Well indeed I too was inspired much and certainly learned a whole lot from his articles in the CanoeSport Journal. Especially his drawings explaining how to do tandem canoe moves were really the best I have ever seen. It’s too bad they aren’t used in the books about FreeStyle like that from Lou Glaros.
But anyway possibly I couldn’t even paddle the way I do now, without reading^reading the articles about paddling from Mike Galt…
I knew Mike well, bought two canoes from him in Tampa in 1984 (a BJX) and 1986 (a Caper), and organized a symposium for him to teach flat water freestyle and John Berry to teach whitewater in the Catskill Mountains in 1988. Here is his famous article on The Solo Mystique: