Solo tripper for complete newbie?

Hi

I’m a complete novice to these sort of canoes but am keen to get into them. Here in Australia we obviously have nowhere near the sort of access to the variety of manufacturers and canoe types as is enjoyed in the US and Canada, but we do have at least one quality importer/outfitters here in NSW (Paddle & Portage, in Kangaroo Valley). They bring in Swift (:drooling_face:), Esquiff and some Wenonah canoes, and I’m headed down there in the new year to try a few (hopefully bringing one home with me :crossed_fingers:). So I was hoping someone out there might help point me in the right direction:

About me - I’m turning 60 next year, and am still reasonably strong/fit/healthy (plus I’ve gotten back into training again). I’m about 5’8”, solid build and 220lbs (although that should be reduced by Christmas). I’ve paddled kayaks and outrigger canoes, but this canoe will be a new learning curve for me.

My intended use - I intend to use this canoe in a number of applications, almost exclusively in sheltered/flat water/very occasional minor rapids. I could cop some small wave in areas exposed to occasional coastal swell, as well as passing boat wakes, but mostly it’ll be in calm flat waters.
Initially it’ll be mostly training to develop my skills/techniques and fitness in short day paddles, but these short/long paddling sessions will continue into the foreseeable future and become my main use for fun, peace of mind and fitness.
Eventually I want to do some increasingly multi-day camping trips, so I will need to be able to load adequate kit with safe margin. Maybe a barrel and a decent pack.
I’ll be paddling exclusively solo, my wife is definitely not the aquatic/camping type :laughing:, and (don’t judge me) I’d like the option of being able to swap to a double bladed paddle when confronted with strong headwinds or need to make rapid progress.

Paddle & Portage will be receiving a shipment from Esquiff at the end of the year, which will include an olive Echo that I’m very interested in.

Ha, rest of my saga got cut off :smile:

Long story short, I’m going to paddle the Echo and compare it to a Silverbirch Firefly 14 and a Wenonah Prism (utilitarian thing with tractor seat), as well as something Prospectorish for comparison.

Just hoping for a bit of guidance/perspective from your collective wisdom. I’d welcome any thoughts/suggestions/comments you could offer.

Cheers :beers:

Think about how you want to paddle - you really can’t kneel with a tractor seat.

Any of these boat will do fine in moderate swell and small waves, but they will get blown around in the wind. Now that I have a sea kayak, I realize how much better they are in coastal environments.

The Echo and Firefly 14 look like traditional river runners. Never paddled them, but I have a Wildfire that is the same length but slightly narrower at the gunnels and has slightly more rocker. I love it. Personally, something “Prospectorish” would be a little too wide for my liking.

For tripping, any of them would hold plenty of gear.

I’d say paddle them and see what you like.

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I’ve never paddled a Swift nor a Esquif, and the only Wenonah I’ve paddled was a Voyager I owned. The Voyager is a big canoe, but it was a blast to paddle and fast, a very good workout machine. It also was a good coastal boat with a cover, and it could carry a decent load, but needed judicious packing because of the narrow hull, and being trim sensitive.

I will say that I’ve been meaning to investigate the Esquif line, particularly the Pocket Canyon and Prospecteur 15. I’m partial to small tandems paddled solo for tripping because I find them easier to load and trim, particularly with a dog, just my personal preference. The dealer a couple hours away from me has a Esquif Prospector 15 set up solo from the factory that has really caught my eye.

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Thanks for that eckilson

Yes I have to say I’m not sold on the whole tractor seat thing, and aesthetically the yellow finish and aluminium trim seem a bit cold/utilitarian to my eye (although I’m told they paddle well and have more capacity)

As for coastal forays, I won’t be taking this thing out on the ocean (unless it’s exceptionally calm).
There’s just a couple places I’ve got in mind that are a little exposed where some waves from the sea that I think I’d have to be careful, but that would be very rare and if conditions were that sketchy then I’d go paddle somewhere else.

Your other points duly noted, it will be interesting to get them out on the water and feel the differences for myself :+1:

Thanks Dav Bart :+1:

It seems getting new custom boats from Wenonah could be an issue, and I’ll only be able to pick from the stock they already have on hand. Another Wenonah order will be a Long way off apparently.
They do have a Solo Plus, but that’s got the 3x seats. There’s also the Wilderness available, but I was told it’s not as good a paddler as the Prism :man_shrugging:

Dunno, I’m currently thinking the Echo would be the go. The Firefly is like a mini Prospector, with the increased manoeuvrability but I won’t know until I actually paddle them. Then again I’ve heard the Echo’s low freeboard could be an issue when loaded up. :man_shrugging:

If you are a newbie, start with a tandem canoe and turn it around and paddle from the bow seat, or kneel and paddle behind the center thwart. Smaller tandem canoes have a little more beam and more carrying capacity. They are more forgiving. Paddle one of those until you develop your skills and then you can think about a solo boat.

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Thanks ppine, that does make sense.

I’ll definitely be having a go at a tandem prospector or two on the day for that very reason. I may well find I can paddle one of those better than I think and so start with Prospector after all. To my mind, I get the impression it might get a bit unwieldy/awkward at times (at least until I develop some skills), and I’m trying to imagine how one of those would go in long open water hauls.

Time will tell I guess :thinking:

I agree with that recommendation. Tandem facing backward from the bow seat. Use a dry bag filled with water at the stern for ballast to level out the boat.

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Since you have a Swift dealer, another option to consider is a Prospector 14 Pack. It’s a solo touring canoe hull fitted with a kayak-style seat which makes it easier to use a double-bladed paddle and keeps your center of gravity low without kneeling.

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Thanks guys for the helpful tips, they’ve had me smashing YouTube videos, online reviews, forums with renewed vigour, as well as communicating directly with P&P.

After much contemplation, I’m now starting to gravitate more towards the prospector canoes, specifically the Esquif Prospecteur 15. I’m going to sleep on it tonight and make the decision by lunchtime tomorrow.

It’ll be a leap of faith, because to get it in the Olive colour (and timber trim) I like, I’ll have to place a specific order. That means I won’t be paddling different canoes to compare, but rather taking straight delivery of my new boat. On the plus side is the fact that I can spend a couple hours getting some paddling instruction to get me started, which perhaps seems a better use of the time. I’d have to learn how to paddle these boats anyway, and that is kind of the whole reason I’ve become mildly obsessed with them in the first place.

I think I’m comfortable with the compromises as the advantages seem to outweigh them with this new direction, and the use of the double paddle occasionally isn’t a breaker for me. I intended to mostly use a single blade anyway :man_shrugging:

I’ll let you know how I get on :+1:

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Looks like you’ve probably already made your decision, but here to +1 the Esquife 15’ Prospector. There’s no ‘one canoe to do everything I want’ boat, but the Prospector is as close as it gets. Given your age and desired activity, look to their lighter materials. Make sure it can still run into a rock, however. They just came up with T-Formex Lite, which is probably perfect (and expensive).

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Thanks Taliesan, that’s reassuring to hear. Great work on your channel BTW, I’ve been watching your relevant vids over and over again (especially on the olive colour, which helped me decide to spend the extra for it on mine). :beers:

I’ve pulled the trigger on the Prospecteur 15 (in olive with wood trim). I can only get it in T Formex so far, which I think should be fine. It’s certainly expensive enough as is, we tend to get pretty hammered financially on cool stuff imports :pensive:

It’s going to be a long wait until January when I can get my hands on it, but I’m confident it’ll be the best possible platform to get started on.

This all sounds promising and I really hope it works out well for you. Years ago when I was active on the forum which pre-dates this one (I re-joined the current forum after several years being away from it), I took quite an interest in encouraging newbie canoe paddlers and especially solo paddlers to make a real effort to learn traditional paddling skills, and to find out if this type of paddling suited them. I can promise you that learning to solo-paddle a canoe and do it “well” is going to be much harder than you are already guessing, but for a lot of people, the rewards are well worth it and even the effort spent in learning to do more than just “get from here to there without too much wig-wagging” turns out to be enjoyable too (even if for the first several outings it probably won’t be). You seem to project an attitude of someone who could enjoy this learning process and “becoming a good paddler”, and I’ll forgive you for considering the double-blade paddle for cheating at times (I used that method during my first full year of solo paddling, and I fell back on that “crutch” when necessary during the first part of my second year of learning).

What do I mean by traditional paddling? Naturally this includes using a traditional paddle, but it also involves learning a variety of different ways to use the paddle so that besides just going straight, turning, and stopping, you can make the boat pivot (or spin all the way around), go sideways, or diagonally, and to be able to do all these things without switching paddling sides (though it’s okay to switch sides, every maneuver can be done without switching sides). And in current, you can use pivots and various sideways movements while moving the boat in the opposite direction of the current to some degree (either while the boat is going forward or backward through the water) to do much more controlled maneuvers around obstructions (or just to move to more advantageous parts of the river more efficiently), with more finesse and using less physical space (that last one is a biggie when you need to make a maneuver “before you hit that rock” or “to keep from getting sideways to the current in a bad place” (turning to adjust your route but without ever changing the heading of the boat away from its straight-ahead orientation, which makes you fit through tight spots nicely). Another aspect of traditional paddling is to paddle from a kneeling position, and trust me, that’s far more comfortable than it sounds, since your body weight is shared between your knees and your butt, and you will of course put some kind of padding on the floor for you knees (you can buy pads made especially for this, or you can improvise). If your body isn’t badly deteriorated in some way, you will find that kneeling is a really comfortable position (probably more so than sitting), though you will need to straighten out your legs every so often for continued comfort (I commonly kneel without any rest breaks at all for as much as three hours when I’m fishing from a canoe, but I usually straighten one leg at a time for a little while, about every half hour to hour when paddling on a trip). Kneeling vastly increases your control of the boat by giving your a lot more “connected-ness” so that you can feel what’s going on, and also so you can apply much more power when needed (if just sitting on the seat, a lot of strokes will make you slip around if you try to do them strongly), and of course by completely eliminating the tendency of the boat to wobble beneath you (and one result of that last aspect is that you can deliberately lean the boat with great control).

You already have chosen a very good boat for traditional paddling. While you are waiting for your boat, consider buying a good book (or two) on paddling skills. I like one particular book that’s quite old: “Path of the Paddle” by Bill Mason. It illustrates a bunch of different canoe skills in a very clear and concise way. His book, “Song of the Paddle” is fun reading too, on the subject of camping and river tripping. I suppose shipping a North American book to Australia will cause the price to increase a lot, but maybe you’ll consider it.

And be sure to check the FREE advice from Bill Mason on YouTube. He made some nice instructional movies decades ago (in those days, they really were only available as movie film on reels, so yes, they originally were sold as movies!) and these are all available on YouTube. You can order them as modern videos too, but since they are on YouTube there’s not much need. Look for videos on basic solo paddling and basic solo maneuvering in whitewater, but similar topics on “doubles” (paddling tandem with a partner) are really useful too, just for reinforcing basic concepts. Many of the whitwater skills that Bill Mason teaches are ignored by modern whitewater paddlers because modern, whitewater-specific canoes are able to do things that traditional canoes can’t. But it’s good to learn these “old ways” because these same skills are actually highly useful on rivers even in flat water, such as when maneuvering in current where there are fallen trees or sharp bends, or shoals and the like, or even just when launching and landing your boat in zones of swift current where any average paddler would be totally flummoxed, but where you will do it with ease. And if you study ahead of time, you won’t be nearly as confused by the seemingly inexplicable stuff your boat does while you are going around the bends on small rivers.

One more thing on the subject of videos by Bill Mason. If you’re just in the mood to fall more in love with the idea of doing trips by canoe, watch “Waterwalker”.

I also recommend looking at books or videos made in more modern times, particularly since Bill Mason never really verbalized the advantages of keeping the paddle shaft quite vertical with the blade close alongside the boat (as seen from the front or rear) during basic paddling strokes, though he surely knew this. Keeping that bit of “form” in mind during your learning process will make you a better paddler, which of course means you will make your boat behave better. The book, “Paddle Your Own Canoe” by Gary and Joanie Mcguffin is a good example of a more modern approach to teaching traditional paddling.

I hope (and recommend) that you ordered your boat with a solo seating configuration. If the boat is pre-ordered with two seats, it might not be too late to alter the order since they might not have finished building it yet. Otherwise you can easily remove them and install a single seat, just slightly behind center, likely with the front edge of the new seat at the same location as the rear thwart so you can keep the carry thwart where it is, and with a new thwart added immediately behind the new seat. Even better would be to put the front edge of the new seat even closer to center, and build a new thwart farther forward than the existing carry thwart (you can portage the boat using the front edge of the seat, or use a clamp-on yoke for long portages). Of course you can leave the tandem seats where they are and paddle the boat backward from the front seat, though that’s least desirable if wanting the best control. Regardless of how you decide to arrange the seating, if you want to try kneeling, it will help enormously to customize the seat hangers to give the seat an inch or two of forward slope, and to raise the height a bit if necessary so your feet can slide underneath it easily. With wooden seat hangers, you can easily build the hangers you need and save the originals so you can switch it back to the original level seat arrangement if you wish. This boat is definitely going to be a little bit “squirrelly” in its handling, compared to most bargain canoes, lake canoes, and certainly compared to most kayaks of similar length. Yes, this will make things more frustrating in the very beginning but the good news is that your boat will constantly encourage you to learn good habits, and with good habits, making the boat behave flawlessly will eventually become second nature.

That was a ton of advice that you didn’t ask anyone for, but as I said, there are clues in your posts which make me think you might be interested in hearing this kind of stuff.

And just as an aside, it seems that the “olive” color is not yet on the Esquif website so I haven’t seen it, but a few years ago I bought a 16-foot Prospector from Nova Craft in that color. I had intended to get it in traditional green, but when I went to buy the boat at a local boat show (to avoid waiting months for a special order), and I saw that their only example of the boat I wanted had the olive color, I realized I liked that even more than green. Everywhere I’ve taken that canoe, paddling enthusiasts comment on how much they like that color. It’s a new color as canoes go, and yet it seems like it should have been one of the traditional colors all along.

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Hi Guideboatguy_II

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out like this. There’re a lot of excellent points you’ve made, all taken onboard. You’re correct in my being interested in this stuff, I’m lapping it all up.

You’re absolutely right about my being a traditionalist, it’s that sort of paddling that has always been interesting to me and what has attracted me to these boats enough to finally make this decision. I also like the practical/flexible nature of these canoes, and I’m really looking forward to developing my skills/fitness enough with my canoe to start loading it up and going exploring/camping with it. They’re certainly way more evolved than casual observation might suggest. You’re probably right regarding the double paddle, its better I’m now not going down that route. Whilst I like to think I’m disciplined enough to only use it in extreme conditions/situations, in reality that boundary could prove a bit nebulous and I’m sure I’d soon ‘go the bludge’ (thus retarding my single paddle development opportunities).

And yes, I am expecting frustration and fatigue when I first start applying lessons to my new paddling techniques, I’ll probably hate the canoe for the first few months, but I also know as my skills/fitness improve, it’ll get steadily easier/more fun. I expect it’ll be way more different from when I was paddling/surfing in the outrigger canoes. There I was just ‘in the engine room’, paddling like stink to make distance or catching waves. I never got to learn how to steer, which seemed a black art in itself. At least with this new canoe, I’ll be responsible for every stroke.

I understand what you’re saying about all the nuances with the paddle in controlling the canoe. I’ve watched more than a few videos of people doing the freestyle stuff, it’s mesmerising. And I can easily see where many of those techniques would prove really handy when out exploring in the canoe. Certainly makes these boats more controllable than any other small craft I’ve operated. I could (likely will) spend a lot of time in the canoe developing these skills over the years.

And I am planning to start with kneeling position from the get go. I have already asked the guys at P&P about setting my boat up with more solo seat arrangement and we’ve agreed to wait until after I’ve paddled it for a bit, after which they said they can happily help customise it as appropriate. In the meantime I’ve gotten back into fitness training, which includes focussing on flexibility/strength in my hip/knee/ankle/wrist/etc. I expect I’ll be in good enough shape to start with, and this will only accelerate when I finally get my bum in the boat.

I’ll be following up on all suggestions on reading/viewing material. I’ve developed an almost unhealthy obsession with YouTube lately (my family openly laugh at all the canoeing channels I’m always watching). I feel like I’ve already paddled most of North America and Canada. And I did stumble on a number of Bill Mason’s movies (including Waterwalker), what a machine he was. I’d like to have met him, he would’ve been a fascinating bloke to talk to. No wonder he (and his kids) are such national icons over there.

Lastly, I’m surprised olive isn’t more common amongst boats. It’s a very traditional colour I think, and looks great with a bit of timber trim. I’m sure I’ll be helping P&P to sell lots of these boats once I get out there and people get to see it.

Get a kneeling pad and spend some time kneeling toes back sitting on your heals. It is not a position that your body is in very often, so it can be a little challenging at first. For most people it is the ankles, not the knees, that start to hurt or go numb after extended periods in this position. Stretching out your ankles will be very helpful. If it is too much to sit directly on your heals you can put a pillow on your heals to start. Rotate your torso bringing your shoulders perpendicular and shifting your weight as you will when paddling and healing the boat. Getting your body stretched and acclimated to these positions will help once you actually get in the boat and start paddling.

Of course, when you are paddling there is nothing wrong with taking a break and sitting on the seat.

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Although I am not a regular kneeler, nor am I comfortable doing it for very long, a kneeling paddler friend showed me a trick to make it a little more comfortalble. He had a thin foam pad that he attached with duct tape a large pool noodle cut in half lengthwise. Place that noodle under your ankles to support your foot up a bit and it goes a long way to increasing your overall kneeling comfort.

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Excellent tips guys, thanks very much. I’ll definitely incorporate these into my preparations. At least I’ve got a couple months to hopefully loosen the joints up a bit.

eckilson and yknpdlr provided some good advice about kneeling. One trick to fit “training” for kneeling into your day is to do that training as part of ordinary sedentary activities such as reading, watching TV, or doing stuff online. I tore some cartilage in one knee when I was in my early 20s and it took years of training for me to reach the point of restoring normal range of motion into the flexed position. Then, about three more times over the years there have been additional minor injuries related to that torn cartilage, but each time it only took me a few weeks of training to restore full range of motion. Fortunately, kneeling in a canoe doesn’t require your knee to flex as far as it possibly can (unless you do the traditional “Canadian” method of kneeling in the center of a tandem canoe, where your butt rests right on your heels instead of on a seat or kneeling thwart), but this just illustrates that such training works if your have limited range of motion.

Here’s something to keep in mind that’s related to what yknpdlr said, as far as reducing strain on your ankles. The type of shoe you wear makes a huge difference, and strangely, this is something that a lot of canoers never really figure out, so I’ll make a big point of it here. Try kneeling on the floor with no shoes on, with your shins flat to the floor, your feet extended so the tops of your feet are flat to the floor, and with your butt right down on your heels. Even if it’s not a position you can maintain for a really long time just yet, you’ll probably see that everything “fits” nicely. Now, try to do the same thing when wearing different kinds of shoes. Big difference! Hiking boots will be the worst, but even shoes that do not restrict ankle motion at all will make kneeling like this impossible on account of either the “toe box” or the stiffness of the sole, or both. That extra stiffness of the shoe puts a lot of extra strain on your ankles because your whole foot ends up being higher, supported from below only by the tip of the toe of the shoe, turning your whole foot into a bridge, with your ankle jammed much more forcibly into that extended position.

Putting some kind of support under your ankle as suggested by yknpdlr addresses this problem, but keep in mind that this also might make it harder for you to extract your feet from under the seat in an emergency. If you can, choose shoes or paddling boots which have a minimal amount of ruggedness surrounding the foot and especially on top of the toe area, and a sole that’s not overly thick (NOT something similar to a hiking boot). It’s a two-way street though. My newest paddling boots are the most comfortable for kneeling that I’ve ever had, but the sole is so flimsy that walking in them on gravel or rocks is hardly better than going barefoot. Since my kind of canoeing often involves hiking into the woods or up hills and the like, these are not my favorite boots, overall. The link below shows one of my favorite kinds of paddling boots. I don’t think these are made anymore (and there was a warm-weather version with breathable uppers which hasn’t been made in many years), but there are still other companies making something similar. Notice the non-rugged construction surrounding the foot, and the sole that’s thick enough to let you walk comfortably on any surface but not so thick as to add unnecessary bulk and stiffness.

If conditions are favorable for going barefoot and you are comfortable that way, that’s best for kneeling, but you will find that even if your feet are resting on a foam pad, sand and other grit tracked into the boat will abrade the tops of your feet. Simply laying a towel or some similar fabric on the floor or foam pad where your feet go, solves that problem.

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Don’t hesitate to bring a double-blade paddle with you as you are getting started. There’s no point in ending up in some situation where trying to overcome the wind or going a long distance to get home is no longer fun. You don’t need to take the risk that your practice sessions might accidentally become grueling.

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