I Love Paddling

… unless you are inclined to continue paddling.” So goes the saintly advice of Jean de Brébeuf, the French Jesuit missionary who paddled with the Hurons in the early days of New France. Brébeuf (pictured), who was canonized a Roman Catholic saint in 1930 along with seven other “North American Martyrs,” offered his paddling insights […]

It seemed natural enough to link to a story headlined “Happy Canoe Year” for our first Canoeing News post of 2009. The story, HERE, in Illinois’ Lake Forester reports on the 23rd annual New Year’s Day canoe trip down the North Branch of the Chicago River. The event, which began as a modest outing Ralph […]

You won’t find specifications for a flying canoe in the Canoeing.com Canoe Guide, but with the holiday season nearing its high-water mark, we thought we should spend a little time talking about flying canoes all the same. You see, after recently reporting that Shelley Posen debuted an original poem at the Canadian Canoe Museum in […]

Do you feel like the holidays are approaching faster than a gnarly rapids on a raging river? Are you worried about just what to get the paddlers on your shopping list? Fear not holiday shoppers, the elves at Canoeing.com are here to help! They’ve just published their Ultimate Paddler Gift Guide, featuring nearly two dozen […]

To the list of canoeing hazards like rocks, low-head dams, sweepers, and strainers we should apparently add hippos, at least when paddling in Africa. Three British scout leaders, who were undertaking a 2,500 mile paddle down the Niger River in a dugout canoe, had their boat overturned by an unseen hippopotamus submerged in the water. […]

When we saw THIS dispiriting story from Reuters today, reporting on the impending demise of the Kawesqar tribe in Patagonia, we were reminded of the role the canoe played in the lives of the Kawesqar and other tribes living on the southern tip of South America. According to the story, with only 12-20 pure-blooded members […]

Perhaps it’s time to add canoes to your Christmas decoration plans. Canadian folklorist Shelly Posen, the Peterborough Examiner reports HERE, knew he wanted to debut his new poem “The Christmas Canoe” among its namesake watercraft. And indeed, the first reading of the poem, based on a Quebecois folk tale about loggers who make a deal […]

Next summer, a canoe brigade is scheduled to paddle to the length of Ontario’s Ottawa River to raise awareness for a waterway that is now on-track to earn Canadian Heritage River designation, the Pembroke, Ontario Daily Observer reports, HERE, Three 21-foot canoes — the Kichi Sibi, L’Outaoais and the Ottawa — which bear the names for the river in Algonquin, French, and […]