I Love Paddling

We’ve written previously, HERE, about St. Cloud, Minnesota’s Les Voyageurs program which sends area high school students on paddling trips deep into the wilds of Ontario, Manitoba, and Nunavut. Recently, we noticed THIS story about how the program — in its 39th year — has gotten inmates at the nearby Minnesota Correctional Facility to paint artistic designs on some of […]

We’ve been intrigued by the reports coming out of south Texas about the Texas Water Safari, billed “The World’s Toughest Canoe Race.” The race, which originated in 1963, runs 260 miles and is contested non-stop. A six-man team headed by Andrew Stephens and which included some “ringers” imported from Belize won the race down the San Marcos […]

The University of California – Berkeley won the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 22nd Annual National Concrete Canoe Championships last weekend in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The Cal Berkeley team, with its 20 foot-long, 230-pound boat dubbed Bear Area, topped Ecole de Technologie Superieure of Canada and Golden State rivals California Polytechnic – San Luis Obispo, which […]

We enjoyed THIS Minneapolis Star Tribune story by outdoor writer Dennis Anderson about a pair of anglers who fished last weekend’s Minnesota muskellunge opener from an aluminum canoe. Heartier than their brethren in larger boats, Brian Gardner and Lori Schwartz admitted that seeking a 40+ inch muskie in a 16-foot boat can be “fearful,” however.

In our favorite event involving college engineering students, concrete construction, and caneoing, teams from across North America are gathering in Tuscaloosa, Alabama this week for the finals of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2009 National Concrete Canoe Competition. Twenty-two college teams from the U.S. and Canada which qualified via regional competition will vie for […]

If you can’t see the video player, click HERE.

Canadian canoests Jonathan Pratt and Stephanie Park are spending the better part of their summer paddling from Tobermory, Ontario, on the northern tip of Lake Huron’s Bruce Penninsula, to Kingston, Ontario at the far eastern end of Lake Ontario. But that’s not the half of it. It’s more like a third of it. You see, […]

The Sammamish Review in Washington just published some video (above) and a fascinating story, HERE, about master canoe-carver John Mullen. Mullen, a member of the Snoqualmie Tribe, has revived his people’s nearly-lost canoe-carving tradition.  With advice from tribal elders and help from apprentices, he has completed four dug-out river and ocean-going canoes, as well as other, smaller efforts.  Mullen’s […]