At the age of 51 I have finally discovered a hobby that is becoming an obsession!
Slow moving river nature paddling/birding
I sit/kneel on the SUP. Dog comes with %95 of the time. I am doing longer and longer trips and my most recent concern is the short summer season in Canada.
I’ve perfected the loading and unloading, launching of my large yet very light SUP.
Here is where the advice needed comes.
I’m thinking of upgrading from a SUP to a canoe to extend the season dramatically (cold doesn’t bother me but wet and cold is dangerous obviously)
I’d like a canoe around the 30lb range, long day trips with 65lb dog. I sit one poutine shy of 200.
I’m not sure if the traditional bench seat in a canoe would be good for me. I can easily sit flat on the SUP for hours and hours but I find the seats in a canoe start to irritate very quickly either sitting or kneeling.
I’d take suggestions on kayaks but it would also have to be able to fit dog and a bit of gear and be light weight.
Within reason price isn’t an issue although like most, I’d love to get the best bang for my buck. Also, totally willing to buy tried, tested and used.
I’m sure this topic has been covered, I just haven’t found specific info.
Thank you all in advance.
In a solo pack canoe you sit down inside the hull like in a kayak rather than perched on a bench. There are quite a few lightweight solos from makers like Hemlock, Wenonah Northstar and Swift.
Another option you might want to look at is the versatile PakBoat folding Puffin Saco kayak. Rather cano- like, at 12’ long and with a 27" beam, it has a very comfortable sling seat with a lumbar supporting back band arrangement and it can be paddled open like a canoe or have the full deck put on with industrial Vecro all around the hull. This would extend your cold weather season. And it weighs 24 pounds with the deck and around 20 without it.
Easy to set up and you can leave it assembled through the season of you want (just have to inflate the inside flotation sponson tubes before each launch which takes 3 minutes with a lightweight hand pump). Sticking a yoga mat or ensolite sleeping pad from an Army Surplus store inside the hull provides a surface for the pup. These small folders pop up used from time to time – new ones are about $1400 with an additional $300 for the deck. That’s less than what you would pay for a new ultralight solo canoe in the various layups. I bought my older red Puffin solo version in the photo for $500. Packs down small enough that I can check the boat and everything I need to paddle it as airline luggage with no oversize penalties. Upper photo shows the newer version without the deck on.
My mind is blown. I am totally gonna look into this! Thank you.
Photo of my Puffin packed for airline travel in a standard rolling duffel and another shot of everything packed in there spread out. It weighs 48 pounds and the measurements are within the airline standard. I carried the rest of my non-paddling clothing and toiletries on that trip in a medium backpack so I could just tow the boat duffel behind me until I checked it. Another nice thing about folding boats is that the companies can send them to you, often for no shipping fee. So no matter where you live you can get one shipped to your door. And when I travel I can break down the boat and store it in the boot of the rental car or in a corner of my rental cottage.
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I’m a huge fan of traditional solo canoes, so consider me biased. When you said that canoe seats irritate you whether sitting or kneeling, here’s the question that comes to my mind. Have you ever paddled a canoe from a kneeling position, where the seat is actually set up for kneeling? I ask that question because if you can kneel and be comfortable on a SUP, you surely can be even more comfortable doing so in a canoe that’s properly set up for that. The problem most people have when considering the suitability of a solo canoe is that they have never seen one up close and have no options to try them. Only a few of us old dinosaurs even own these boats. And similarly, very few tandem canoes are owned by people who have set them up for kneeling.
Proper setup is everything. Kneeling in a canoe with your butt against the front edge of a standard flat bench seat is just not a good setup. Of course the seat needs to be high enough that you can comfortably get your feet beneath it (a lot of canoe seats, especially in off-the-shelf solo boats, are a bit too low for that), and the seat needs to be sloped forward. With a properly sloped seat, your comfort level will increase enormously. You will need a kneeling pad on the floor, of course.
A huge benefit of this kneeling setup (for people who can actually kneel) is that it eliminates back strain, something you probably already know from kneeling with your butt on your heels on your SUP.
You can increase seat comfort by another very big increment if you get a seat that’s curved (it’s slightly lower in the middle than on each side) instead of being a flat bench. A good source for canoe seats is “Ed’s Canoe”, and last time I checked, they carried curved seats.
All of this requires that your canoe be set up for having standard wood-framed seats, and that the seat hangers be suitable for modifying or adjusting or rebuilding. On just about any “traditional” canoe of good quality, this will be the case.
I will add that with a hard-shell hull, you can get a design that’s optimized for these little twisty rivers that you paddle. If you approach paddling with the idea that you want to get reasonably good at it as time goes by, you will be rewarded by having a traditional hull that’s suitable for responding optimally to your skills.
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Actually I can’t kneel at ALL comfortably.
I sit on the SUP for hours with zero back issues. I’ve never been able to kneel for any longer than about 5 minutes.
Knees are fine but my legs go numb annd my hamstrings cramp. Even in my teens, took karate, couldn’t kneel. I can squat for days just nothing kneely.
I have very strong, powerful legs that happen to be short and it’s just too much pressure.
I did buy a canoe though!!! 
12 foot, 35lb SportsPall
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Well then, that entirely changes things (I’m sure you can see why the description in your original post made me think you were doing some kneeling). Anyway, congratulations on the new boat!
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