I picked up an old solo canoe, but I’m not much of a canoeist skill-wise. Reading up on solo canoeing, everything brings me to Canadian style solo ala Bill and Becky Mason. Amazing stuff for some circumstances of course, but is there another “style” of solo canoeing using different techniques, and if so, where does one read/learn about it? I see thin old books about solo canoeing by John Foshee and Cliff Jacobson but for all i know those are more of the same.
Cliff Jacobson style is different from the Bill Mason style. It is still primarily kneeling, but it focuses on more “modern” techniques suited to the dedicated solo boats instead of the solo paddling tandems. There are also sit and switch paddlers who paddle narrow efficient dedicated solo boats.
So is the ‘sit and switch’ technique described anywhere, or is it essentially just “canoeing” lol
Canadian Style often means paddling a tandem canoe solo extremely heeled.
In essence this means your are transforming it a bit to a very large solo canoe.
Disadvantage is that you have to do everything from one paddling side because you cannot switch sides to go straight or make cross-strokes to maneuver.
In a real solo canoe you don’t have to heel (although some are so big you may stiil want to do that) and you can switch sides to go straight or make cross-strokes to maneuver.
In a solo canoe you can switch sides to maneuver or go straight (although going straight is a maneuver too, of course). Some call that sit and switch, but that is confusing as you can do it kneeling too. Personally I therefore prefer to call it “hit and switch” as this describes this technique much better.
Peter Heed and Dick Mansfield describe the technique in their book “Canoe Racing”. Of course the technique isn’t limited to racing, but it is the technique marathon canoe racers use.
It would help to know what you have for a canoe.
Personally, I think one of the best canoeing books you can get is Freestyle Canoeing: Contemporary Paddling Technique by Charlie Wilson and Lou Glaros. It includes solo and tandem paddling.
Freestyle has been called “obedience training for your canoe”. Competition freestyle paddlers use it to develop choreographed routines set to music, but you can use the same techniques in everyday paddling. Mark Ornstein calls it “functional freestyle”.
One of the best threads ever on P.net (now P.com) was Mark Ornstein’s Freestyle Instructional thread.
https://forums.paddling.com/t/freestyle-instructional-thread/52507
Its long, but there is a lot there to learn.
It would help to know what you have for a canoe.
Nothing fancy, just an old 13’ Sawyer
I also have a 16’ Penobscot but it seems to have gotten much heavier so it rarely leaves dry land. So I grabbed something lighter to see how I like it. But its kind of different from what I’m used to, hence my questions on how to best manage it.
Thanks for providing. It helps me a lot.
Get the freestyle book - don’t worry about the music or choreographed routines that you see on YouTube, just focus on the strokes and maneuverers. The big advantage of a dedicated solo over a tandem is that you are paddling at the center of the boat (pivot point) and the narrower width makes it easy to do offside (cross) strokes. With the narrower width, anything you can do on your on side you can do on your off side. Combined with boat lean (edging, tilt, whatever you want to call it) the boat becomes very maneuverable and a lot of fun to paddle.
I started out in a dedicated solo (Bell Yellowstone Solo), so I have never been big on paddling a tandem boat solo.
Yeah that choreographed musical crap is a real turnoff. I’m interested in paddling, not boat ballet.
I’ll get the book.
Unless you are happy with wind, waves and current controlling your course, it is all about “boat ballet”. Developing a good forward stroke on both sides of the boat, turning into eddies or out into current, spinning the boat into an upstream ferry or back to down into the river flow, side slipping around obstacles, back paddling to set up back ferries, and linking it all together based on conditions you are in. I’d be happy if I was half the paddler that the best competition free-stylers are.
I’m not saying they aren’t skilled, I’m saying that choreographed canoeing to music is entirely unappealing.
And it’s only done on flat, protected ponds
Any whitewater instructor will tell you that the best place to practice strokes, at least initially, is on flatwater. Master it there, and then take it to more difficult conditions. Practicing the strokes and maneuvers on flatwater has made me a better paddler in all conditions.
2 Likes
Indeed, practice when you can – not when you need…
The advantage of FreeStyle is that practicing of techniques for touring paddling are not as boring for many paddlers as I have noticed 
Significant difference though is that the most import maneuver for touring paddlers – going straight – is not that emphasized with FreeStyle. They usually stick with trailing J-strokes 
Learning to do pitch strokes and (active) J-strokes is often overlooked there.
1 Like
Freestyle canoeing is about fine control with a variety of choices of paddle strokes that work. An instructor I know well says to “get your head in the water”, not literally of course, but meaning understanding how you, the paddle, the canoe and the water all work together as one single unit. Once you get comfortable with many stroke types that may be linked to one another, you can either put on a performance for show, or you can control your canoe in any traveling situation.
While you may never perform “canoe ballet” to an audience with musical background, the stroke control techniques learned in freestyle all become part of your muscle memory and automated choices of what to do when water and weather conditions or situations call for it.
I liken fine control of my canoe to riding a bicycle. When riding on a rough and winding road, do you have to consciously think of what you need to do to avoid a pothole, or make a quick turn? No, a practiced rider’s actions are automatic and linked to get the job done.
Similarly, if you have a quiver of practiced paddle strokes, you make your canoe perform in any situation without even thinking out loud of which stroke you need next, and instead you just move your paddle and the canoe will respond with a series of linked strokes that will get the job done smoothly and effectively.
1 Like
I went out for an hour in the boat, which is really my only time actually paddling it. My first time i just sat in it and piddled around at the boat launch while my dog got anxious on shore. Its a good thing she hates canoes because there’s really no room for her in this one anyway. Anywho I did figure out a few things based on my reading, namely how to get it to move mostly straight ahead, mostly with a modified vegetable soup musette stroke in D major. I really like the boat. I can tell we’re going to be get along once I learn how to pluck its strings.