In Rapid Media’s 2014 Paddling Buyer’s Guide, there’s no shortage of choice. Short boats, long boats, folding and inflatable boats, standup boards for idling, surfing, racing and rapid shooting—and all made from a cornucopia of space-age materials and presented in every shape and color imaginable.
What’s nothing short of amazing is that with the wide-ranging preferences and predilections of the current paddlesports marketplace, you can still buy a canvas-covered wooden canoe essentially unchanged in more than a century of service. Yes, you too can have a premium-grade, 16-foot Old Town OTCA for $7,599.99. Fiberglass skin is $200 extra, plus tax and shipping.
Back in 1925, an OTCA sold for about $50. The exact price depended on a variety of options, including length, color, finish, sponsons, outside stems, floor racks, canoe seats, middle thwart, long decks, half ribs and sailing accouterments.
Adjusting the 88-year-old price tag in today’s dollars using the consumer price index, that boat would be $663.50. A tremendous deal and a far cry from what is now demanded for a fancy throwback double-ender. In today’s market, it’s the labor costs that push the price through the roof. Nevertheless, the OTCA and others of its ilk have survived.
And while I find it harder to imagine a buyer in the year 2100 flipping through some e-catalogue, telepathically delivered of course, and picking out a standup paddleboard that’s essentially unchanged since 2014, I can envision the venerable wood and canvas canoe still quietly plying the waters.
Regardless of manufacturer, length, material, weight, style, history or price, the essence of self-propelled recreation persists and is as relevant today as it was when the whole concept of leisure came along as a happy consequence of the industrial revolution. Canoes, kayaks, boards—hell, even improvised craft like Huck Finn’s raft—still offer their paddlers and polers a chance to get on the water, to connect to a river or shoreline and to participate in an activity that is as old as North America itself.
In 1925, the average life expectancy for men was 57.6 years and for women 60.6 years. Today, we can expect to live 20 years longer and many of us choose to spend it immersed in the happiness found in the rhythm and camaraderie of silent craft.
Looking back at some of the old canoe manufacturers’ catalogues, the range of products on offer is much narrower and the options seem a bit antiquated, however some of the slogans are as apt now as they were back then. In 1919, for example, the Old Town Canoe Company catalogue reflected on the post-WWI era, showing an image of a soldier advancing with bayonet mounted against a montage of paddle, pack, canoe and blanket. The slogan, referring to the Allies victory in WWI, says, “Outdoor life did it,” meaning that the strength of mind, body and spirit of a young person heading into conflict was shaped by the paddling experience.
In 1920 and 1921, the bristle of that sentiment was softened to “Old Town Canoes for outdoor vigor.” And, in 1922, my favorite, beneath a happy couple on the water in a handsome canvas-covered canoe, the slogan reads, “Waterways for pleasure days.”
More than ninety years later and the sentiment is equally as true. Happy shopping.
This article first appeared in Rapid Media’s 2014 Paddling Buyer’s Guide. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it on your desktop here.
