Due to a hip replacement, I continue to primarily paddle on my knees. But I’m finding it less comfortable to sit in a canoe when I tire of kneeling. I’d rather stand then sit. From that realization, I’ve decided to see how poling works for me.
Videos show poles of aluminum, wood or bamboo composition. I also see some powers have what looks like a non-slip pad under their feet.
Can any of you advise what would be appropriate for poling a 15’ Old Town on Class I and II small rivers?
a start, both by my old buddy Fred Klingener…Home Depot Canoe Pole
Fred, my son Aaron and I used to pole with our guru Ed Hayden. Ed passed, but his son Rob continued in making poles
Our standard is a 1.125" diameter by 12’ long 6061 t-6 al tube, then the nylon endpieces with bolts as shown in Robs site. If you want to take a shortcut, you can buy some copper plumbing endcaps and epoxy them on, however the overlap can snag on edges of rocks if you’re in rock infested waters.
Another old friend, Robin, used to be on here as Beavertail or Beavertail 100 or something like that; a real traditionalist and sensible guy…
and some reflections on my poling experience, with some pretty dedicated stand up folks.
I had a couple boats I used for poling, one Royalex and one Royalite…as long as you’re wearing rubber soled shoes/sneakers you’ll be fine traction wise. I had a mat in the boats at times, for kneeling, and found stepping to the edges of it would affect my balance a bit.
Watch your shins. Ed Hayden used to wear shin guards while poling, and the rest of us had shiny shins from knocking them into a thwart from time to time.
Learn to isolate your body from the waist down. Try standing in your canoe, pump your legs while keeping your upper body still. This was always a great warmup, and getting to the point where you can dip the gunwales rather rapidly while your upper body is standing at attention used to have my kayaking friends thinking I was bending the laws of physics…hah, buttboaters lol.
Keep a slight bend to your knees, and use your legs to help on the push. That may take a little time, but you’ll get there.
Work on keeping the pole “push” behind you, so you go forward, instead of “crabbing”. I know for me, this was something I needed to concentrate on, but fortunately we used to have great get togethers with some awesome polers, and Marshall Moore had the “push” down perfectly.
Carry 2 poles, at least. If one gets stuck, let it go if you’re in whitewater, and use the other pole to get back to the first. Seen quite a few bent poles and out of boat experiences from folks trying to extract a stuck pole in a reactionary manner.
Don’t “over commit” to your push, until the pole is on the bottom. Water depths change, and sometimes assuming contact and committing to your push before the pole is actually on the bottom can make for another out of boat experience. I learned to let the pole slide through my hand, and feel for the little bounce off the bottom.
Hope you get into the poling. It’s a great activity, both physically and mentally. You can mess about, have a great time maneuvering through a small technical area, no shuttles, no dam releases yadayada…
If you’ve had a hip replacement (presumably due to age) and you are looking into poling— instead of advice, I would just like to offer a salute, and my respect and admiration. Salute!