A shot of home base on Northern Ontario’s Moose River on a canoe trip with Missinaibi Headwaters Outfitters and a class of Grade 7 and 8 students.
This photo is was taken by Erin Pehar and submitted as part of the Canadian Hertiage Rivers Photo Contest. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.
In this beautifully shot short from Rogue Films, canoe maker David Moses Bridges discusses his passion for working with birch bark and keeping traditional building methods alive.
Adventure Kayak reader Trevor Killam shares this shot from a recent November surf session at Clam Harbour, Nova Scotia. “Cinder our Silver Labrador decided to help our friends get back out into the surf,” Trevor says.
Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.
Comfortable and economical, this low-profile PFD offers unrestricted motion thanks to generous arm openings. Fully adjustable, the Aries is especially popular with canoeists who prefer to paddle with a tractor seat due to its high-backed design.
Features:
$99 | www.kokatat.com
By now you’ve surely heard of glamping—the upscale version of camping derived from the oxymoron, glamorous camping. What started as tabloid celebrities bringing the luxuries of their everyday lives into the backcountry is now a worldwide tourism industry phenomenon. Think mints on fluffed pillows and paraffin facials inside pre-pitched safari tents, that sort of thing.
I’d like to propose a new word for a much older, more admirable tradition, and one dearer to my heart—dadcamping. Derived from the root words, dad and camping. Clever, huh? Dadcamping can be seen as immature, irresponsible
and dangerous to some women—although daughters seem to enjoy themselves just fine until a certain age, when the bare mention of it causes their eyes to roll back in their heads. “Ahhh, Dad, do we have to play your silly games?”
Dadcamping isn’t limited to just camping with Dad. It’s more a state of mind, or more accurately, a state of mindlessness. Fine examples of dadcamping include: blowing donuts in the ski lodge parking lot; blasting The Gourds’ bluegrass remake of Snoop Dogg’s Gin and Juice; riding no hands through the campground; black diamond runs; turtle,
minnow and frog catching; marshmallows for breakfast; class III whitewater; naked swims at public beaches; rope swings and cliff jumping; and Tyrolean traverses (shown here).
Not only is dadcamping fun, a recent study lead by researches at the Université de Montreal found that fathers, more so than mothers, tend to give their children the leeway to take risks and explore. More freedom, say these very brainy academics, better equips youngsters for the challenges of life that lie ahead. “The less protective the parent, the more exploratory the behaviour of the child,” says Daniel Paquette, a psychology professor at the university.
Half of the study tells us what we dadcampers already know—fathers are more likely to give children space to take risks. More importantly, the study identifies a clear link between our arm’s-length, more adventurous style of parenting and the intrepidness of the kids.
Those who question the value of dadcamping (more commonly known as the activation theory of parenting) are those from the attachment theory camp, a massive group of concerned citizens made up of mostly mothers and mother-in-laws.
Until this new research is more widely accepted, dadcampers must continue to guard certain secrets, which are reserved for its members (dads and kids) only. The Dadcamper Code lays out the one and only object of the fraternity as follows: You take your pointer finger and put it to your lips like you’re going to shush someone in church and repeat these three words, “Don’t tell Mommy.”
This article first appeared in Canoeroots and Family Camping, Early Summer 2010 issue. For more expert tips, download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
This review of Nova Craft Canoe’s Moisie was originally published in Canoeroots and Family Camping magazine.
Nova Craft has reinvented a boat with an enviable reputation among river trippers. The long-defunct Blue Hole Canoe Company of Sunbright, Tennessee, first released this canoe in the early ‘80s as the Cumberland. Steve Scarborough, creator of the celebrated Mad River Canoe Caption, was responsible for its original design. Evergreen Canoes then reproduced it as the Starburst in the 1990s.
The now legendary, highly rockered hull design has never been bettered as a river running tripping canoe. However, since Evergreen stopped making boats several years ago, a re-sale market hardly exists—why would anyone sell a boat this good? So, a hungry frustrated market for this boat built quickly as time passed.
Enter Nova Craft Canoe of London, Ontario. They created a new mold carefully taken from the dimensions of the Cumberland and Starburst, and in response to paddler demand, began pressing Royalex. The new hull was christened the Moisie in honor of the iconic Quebec white-knuckle river. At first glance, the Moisie is a dead ringer of the Starburst. It is the same 16-foot four-inch hull with aggressive rocker and a very round bottom. It isn’t until you get out the tape measure that you realize the subtle improvements Nova Craft has made.
With each iteration, this boat has become deeper. The Moisie is half an inch deeper than the Starburst, making a dry boat even dryer.
“Hollow vinyl gunwales are prone to collapsing at the points where the seat and yoke bolts pass through,” says Roch Prevost of Nova Craft, “so we inserted a tough vinyl bushing into an oversized hole at these locations to take the pressure, and bingo, we have a simple solution to grossly sunken bolt washers.”
The Starburst hull was prone to a splitting of the interior vinyl just forward of the stern paddler’s knees—most likely from flexing of the floor when running the boat empty. A new Moisie has a hull completely lacking in flex because of the heavier expedition-grade material Nova Craft is calling Royalex Plus. It also comes in stan- dard industry Royalex. The seats are set in an optimum tripping position, maximizing the load carrying space with room for far more than two 60-liter barrels between the bow seat and the yoke and two more to fit snugly between the yoke and the stern thwart.
Any real-world comparison of this hull with other boats highlights its exceptional dryness and maneuverability. It should be mentioned here that the Moisie is a boat that begs for whitewater outfitting—thigh straps, contoured kneepads, flotation bag cages and forward-tilted seats bring it to life. Our demo boat came without outfitting so we set shaped kneepads loosely in the bottom and set out to do some turns.
The Moisie sweetly initiates, turns and carves like a playboat. It feels even better carrying a load as the extra weight sits the boat lower in the water, adding stability. It is so responsive to input from both bow and stern thanks to its heavy rocker and dramatically rounded bottom that new paddlers may find it requires a lot of minding to keep it straight. But advanced paddlers will be left smiling and wondering if they should finally send their scarred and treasured veteran Starbursts out into the resale market.
If you are going to travel a river straight through and just enjoy the scenery, there are many other boats that will float you. But this is the boat for playful three-week river adventures far from the maddening world.
This article originally appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2013. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
“This ‘True Bug’ managed to hitch a ride in our canoe while clinging to my barrel pack harness. I found it as I was unpacking and it was attempting to access my tent. Upon inspection this bug was rather cooperative (and fascinating, I will add) so I grabbed my camera. The river in the background provided a great backdrop.” Jason Kuruc on the South Nahanni River.
This photo is was taken by Jason Kuruc and submitted as part of the Canadian Hertiage Rivers Photo Contest. Want to see your photo here? Send to [email protected] with subject line Daily Photo.
After more than four months on the water, the Canoeing The Continent expedition is nearing the end of its journey, as the two paddlers draw nearer to Istanbul. The pair has embarked on an ambitious challenge: to canoe across the whole of Europe, connecting waterways without portaging.
“On our entire crossing of Europe, our longest portage between waterways was 25 meters, from one side of a campsite to the other!” says James Warner Smith.
Currently, Warner Smith and Nathan Wilkins are more than 130 days into their trip, heading east, and dealing with all the challenges that the Black Sea can throw at them, including terrible weather, huge waves and rocky headlands.
The expedition began on the Atlantic coast of France, in the city of Nantes. They’ve since paddled through a variety of landscapes, including untouched rivers, historic canals, busy shipping rivers and the Black Sea. The two spent more than 2,000 kilometers on the Danube River alone, following its course through Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania.
“Each section of the route presented new challenges, as well as numerous language barriers since we both speak decent French but nothing of the other nine countries,” says Warner Smith.
Undoubtedly, upstream paddling has been the most difficult for the pair, especially along the Loire River, since it was combined with the intense heat of southern France in July.
The wide lakes on the Danube, the result of Serbian hydroelectric dams, also caused problems. “Here the waves caught us off-guard and out of our depth and it was probably the closest we’ve come to really getting hurt. After a very close scare, we spent some very nervous days paddling around rocky headlands,” says Warner Smith.
The two students, who met through running, were awarded a grant for the trip through the University of Warwick. Both agree that their athletic backgrounds have allowed them to weather the physical demands of the trip relatively unscathed.
“I originally got the idea for the trip after I canoed the Yukon River in 2010. I spent two weeks there in the wilderness and had the most fantastic canoeing experience. After that I was keen to do another big canoe trip but wanted something large scale and original,” says Warner Smith. He hatched the plan and Wilkins, who’d never actually canoed before, was game.
While they are struggling to cope with the winter waves on the Black Sea, they had mentally prepared themselves that this last part of the journey would be heavily reliant on good weather. If canoeing over the Turkish border becomes impossible, the two may opt to hike through the Bulgarian mountains. They’re gutted at the thought of changing their route, but trying to remain optimistic.
“But to be honest, when we look back at the challenges we’ve overcome and the distance we’ve made since day one, it gives us a pretty good feeling,” says Warner Smith.
Follow their expedition at Canoeing The Continent.
Paddling with friends. Soaking up autumn sunshine. Exploring new places and revisiting favorites. Sleeping under the stars. Living well outdoors.
Why do you love kayaking?
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The ladies of TiTs DEEP released the second episode of their new web series this week. “Webisode #2 ‘All Roads Lead To The PNW,’” is filled with great kayaking footage, including a tandem kayak drop of Celestial Falls in Oregon. It also features the off-water antics we’ve come to expect from TiTs DEEP—a movement to empower females in extreme adventure sports.
Breakfast beers, blanket forts and seemingly spontaneous dance moves are all in there for a reason, says Katrina Van Wijk, who was literally tits-deep in the water of the Green River last year when the movement’s name was coined.
“I think it’s important to show that we are normal people that enjoy having fun,” she says. The goal of the web series is to encourage more women to push themselves in extreme sports and pairing the paddling footage with a look at day-to-day life “makes it more realistic for the viewer to be inspired,” says Van Wijk.
TiTs DEEP plans to feature women from a variety of extreme sports in upcoming episodes. A new video will be released each month, and along with whitewater kayaking, Van Wijk hopes to show mountain biking, skiing and rock climbing, and the lifestyle of each sport’s ladies.
To learn more, watch The Creation of TiTs DEEP and the first episode in the series, Webisode #1: Tetas Profundas.
