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The End of Open Boating

Is opening boating really dead? (Photo: Pascal Girard)
The End of Open Boating

If there seems to be more room in eddies lately, it may be because there are fewer hulking open boats taking up space.

Across the board, sales of OC1s are down, leaving some in the industry worrying that a cultural shift from canoes to kayaks is underway.

“We’ve dropped 70 percent in sales of open boats over the last 10 years,” says Chris Hipgrave, director of retail sales at Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) in North Carolina.

Kelly McDowell, owner of The Complete Paddler in Toronto, shows a similar ledger.

“There was a big drop in open boat sales two years ago, and it’s been slow ever since,” says McDowell.

Things look bleak on the supply side of the market. Dagger got out of the open boat market six years ago. Bell Canoe Works picked up Dagger’s popular Ocoee mold, adding to its slate of three hulls, but has recently stopped making canoes while the company looks for a new owner. Since announcing business woes in 2010, Evergreen Canoes—makers of the beloved Starburst—has also ceased production. That leaves Esquif, Mad River Canoe, Mohawk Canoes and now Wenonah to supply an OC1 market of questionable strength.

Jacques Chasse, owner of Esquif, says even with the exodus of canoe makers, supply exceeds demand.

“We have three or four models ready to develop, there’s just not enough market to justify new boats each year,” he says.

McDowell observes that those buying open boats tend not to be new to the sport, but older paddlers upgrading or replacing boats. Darren Bush, owner of Rutagbaga outdoor store and organizer of Wisconsin’s Canoecopia trade show, sees the same thing and is worried the issue might be generational.

“Twenty years ago, we used to sell four canoes for every kayak. Now it’s the opposite. And those who are buying canoes are 40- or 50-year-olds,” says Bush.

Bush says that most people buying open boats are coming across from learning to canoe in tandem models. “There are no beginner paddlers who come in and say, ‘I want to get into OC’. Thank you Red Bull,” says Bush, remarking that the kayak industry does a better job of portraying the sport as part of a racy lifestyle.

On that point, too, McDowell agrees. “Open boat videos are kind of boring compared to kayaking,” he concedes, a fact that might contribute to why The Complete Paddler is selling more whitewater kayaks even as canoes drop off.

Challenging this staid image, the recently released Canoe Movie 2: Uncharted Waters features talented young open boaters, pulse-quickening drops and exotic locations. But while filmmakers play catch up, the pro-kayaking trend is mirrored at Nantahala where Hipgrave reports last year NOC sold the most kayaks in its 40-year history.

Hipgrave says one of the main reasons for the dramatic shift in sales in the southeast is the feeder effect of hundreds of summer camps.

“Twenty years ago, all the camps were teaching kids whitewater in canoes. Now, except for a few hardcore canoe camps, they are all doing kayaking programs,” says Hipgrave, who points to the shorter learning curve and lower costs of kayaking.

Meanwhile, Claudia Kerckhoff-Van Wijk at Madawaska Kanu Centre in Ontario says their canoe program showed a steady growth compared to kayaking over the last 15 years, except for the past three years when canoeing held steady as kayaking demand increased. She says one of the ways they keep their canoeing component strong is to offer family weeks through the summer. Because of their versatility, canoes hold obvious benefits for paddling families.

Expanding on that family theme might be Esquif’s next move.

“If you start canoeing instead of kayaking, you will stick with it,” says Chasse of the effect of luring solo paddlers into open hulls while they are young.

Chasse says he could have an inexpensive whitewater boat for children aged seven to 10 years old on the water as early as next year. Of course, given the wreckage around him, he can be forgiven for spending time on shore scouting a line.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about it,” says Chasse. “I just have to convince myself it’s the way to go.”

 

This story originally appeared on page 16 of the Early Summer 2012 issue of Rapid magazine. Read the entire issue here.

Paddler Profile: Extreme Whitewater Champ Sam Sutton

Sam Sutton charging a line in Austria. (Photo: Jens Klatt)

Four years ago at the inaugural, much-hyped Adidas Sickline Extreme Kayak World Championships in Oetzal, Austria, a fiery young paddler from New Zealand stole second place, just 11/100ths of a second behind the winner, from a field of 50 top European finalists.

In 2010 and again last year, Sam Sutton, 23, took the heavy brass belt of World Champion for himself, smashing the course record in the process and adding the coveted championship to a growing list of race wins.

With his silky smooth, power-packed paddling style, Sutton is dominating the extreme racing scene. His seemingly innate ability to place perfectly timed stokes on even the hardest whitewater courses has earned him the podium at many top races, including the Teva Mountain Games and Norway’s Voss Extreme Week.

“Sam has this outstanding mental ability to relax and perform under pressure, allowing him to pull off amazing results at the crucial moments,” says fellow Kiwi racer, Josh Neilson.

Growing up within walking distance of the Kaituna River on New Zealand’s North Island, Sutton’s endless energy and enthusiasm earned him the respect and tutelage of the area’s best paddlers, including local legend James Moore and successful international competitor Kenny Mutton. But it wasn’t until Sutton’s second overseas experience in 2007, which took him from Uganda to Canada then on to California, that he got his taste for hard Class V boating. It was while running these difficult rivers that he honed his mental edge, learning to react to any situation quickly and calmly.

Wins at local races, then international events, followed. Sutton traveled to Austria hoping to prove himself at what was being billed the Extreme Race World Championships. He did just that, scooping a podium finish from Tao Berman, the only other non-European Sickline finalist.

Sutton’s talents translate into “one of the smoothest racing styles to date,” says Sickline creator and team manager, Olaf Obsommer, who signed the young Kiwi to the Sickline Team in 2008 after his outstanding performance at the World Championships.

Last year, the pair traveled the globe to produce Searching for the River God; Obsommer filming and Sutton paddling in the hardest conditions imaginable.

“What impresses me most about Sam is his character; he is not a stress maker or neurotic, he has incredible mental power,” says Obsommer, who works regularly with world-class boaters like Mariann Saether and Nick Troutman. “He is also a powerhouse yet doesn’t look like one, his movement is so fast and precise at the same time.”

Catching up with Sam in his hometown of Okere Falls, NZ, you would never know he is a world champion. “My life doesn’t revolve around kayaking,” he explains with typical Kiwi candor, “it is something I enjoy doing and I do it well…so that is sweet.”

With the launch of his new business, Rotorua Rafting, on the Kaituna River last August, Sutton is busy balancing his racing career with being an entrepreneur. He’s planning another world tour for 2012, hitting all the major events: Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Extreme Outdoor Games in Italy, Voss Extreme Week in Norway, the invitation-only Whitewater Grand Prix in Chile and, of course, defending his title at Sickline.

“Someone has to keep those North Americans and Europeans at bay,” Sutton declares confidently. “I have no plans to hang up my title any time soon.”

This article originally appeared in Rapid‘s Early Summer 2012 issue. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions here, or browse the archives here.

Class V+ North Fork hosts a new race in June

Kayaking on the North Fork. (Photo: Mike Leeds)
Class V+ North Fork hosts a new race in June

Inspired by other big water events like the Whitewater Grand Prix, which is set to run its second edition this December in Chile, the North Fork Championship is being casually referred to by boaters in the know as “the Ship”.

In the first of the weekend’s two events, lesser knowns will compete on a three-mile downriver race through class IV–V water. The top three performers from this event qualify to race against elite boaters from around the world down a second course made up of four gates through Jacob’s Ladder and Golf Course, the rapids that give the North Fork Payette its extreme reputation.

It was the Boise area’s vibrant community of first-rate whitewater talent that prompted event director James Byrd to create the two-tiered format. “I wanted to bring the best paddlers in the world to compete against locals,” he says.

Paddling in their neck of the woods means paddling well, but there are few elitists in the area; just hard-working, humble folks who live for time off spent paddling Idaho’s steep creeks and huge whitewater. The hope is that the North Fork will serve as an equalizer between the hometown crowd and the pros invited to compete.

Not only will the mixed bag of paddlers be competing for bragging rights, there is also an eyebrow-raising cash pot to be awarded to winners. Byrd says that the cash prizes will provide legitimacy to whitewater kayaking in the world of extreme sports and support athletes. “I’m trying to get some money into the hands of paddlers—pros and locals—to get more people into boats,” he says.

Celebrating top-level athletes and the cachet of extreme paddling while promoting the accessibility of whitewater to beginners and average-Joe, class III paddlers is a balancing act the whitewater community has yet to perfect.

Byrd says his goal is to inspire new paddlers, not scare them. “I want to showcase the abilities of the world’s top paddlers and that requires rapids like Jacob’s Ladder,” he says. “If there was a race like this when I was growing up, I would have trained my whole life to compete at this level.”

Whitewater pioneer and North Fork legend, Doug Ammons, is a mentor to top paddlers and respects the skill level and accomplishments of many younger paddlers, including Byrd. But with cash and hefty titles on the line, he questions whether the whitewater community needs events like this.

“The instant you put in prize money and people start viewing a run as a competition, then paddlers focus on themselves rather than the river,” he says.

In the 1990s, Ammons organized the North Fork Payette Fast Get-Together. With an emphasis on get-together, it was so far from being about titles or cash prizes that, in 1994, he canceled the event after being offered a large cash sponsorship deal by ESPN.

Byrd says his goal is simply “to produce a safe, fun and respectful event on the river. I’ve been lucky enough to paddle with some of the world’s best paddlers and I’ve experienced the giddiness we feel when paddling big water,” he says. “The cash won’t change that. We’re just here because we love it so much.”

For dates, entry forms and more info on the Ship, visit www.northforkchampionship.com.

 

This story originally appeared on page 15 of the Early Summer 2012 issue of Rapid magazine. Read the entire issue here.

Wenonah Recon Canoe Review

Wenonah Recon on the Madawaska River. (Photo: Michael Mechan)
Wenonah Recon Canoe Review

I asked Jake Greseth, Wenonah’s marketing di­rector, why they called their first solo whitewater playboat the Recon. Two reasons, he said. Re­con for reconnaissance had a nice whitewater vibe to it, and Recon for reconnect. As Greseth says, “The Recon is nothing too tricky or ex­treme, it’s a welcoming platform for those who have been-there-done-that and want to go back and do it again.”

Most open boat designs are by guys building the perfect boat for themselves. Wenonah, on the other hand, designed the Recon to be a ca­noe for the people—lots of people.

On first inspection, the Recon looked to me like a Mad River Outrage crossed with an Esquif Spark. When I learned it was co-designed by Dana Henry, this made sense. Dana Henry is the son of Jim Henry, co-founder of Mad River Ca­noe and designer of the timeless Outrage. And the last time I saw Dana, he took 30 seconds off my best time at the ACA Open Canoe Slalom Championships—on my home river. No surprise, then, to see the subtle V hull of the Outrage and an asymmetrical cab-forward shape reminiscent of the Spark.

Not everyone is excited about smaller and edgier open canoes. After 12 years of paddling OC1s less than 10 feet long, even I found get­ting back into 13 feet of Royalex was pleasantly reassuring. The Recon has no wobble or flip-flop from gunwale to gunwale like my Esquif Zoom or the Mohawk Maxim.

It takes an extra stroke to get the Recon mov­ing but it is so much faster and carries its speed so much deeper through turns. Think big for­ward stroke with a stern correction stroke… Oh, glory days.

With very little tilt, the Recon’s shallow V really holds a ferry angle. Give it more tilt and the ends magically release and the bow swings smooth­ly around. After a few big eddy turns, I started dropping the 13-foot hull into places it really shouldn’t be. The secret is to approach with a very open angle and work its release effect with an offside tilt to slam on the brakes and snap the bow upstream. Fun.

The Recon is super dry whether surfing or crashing through breaking waves. Seldom does water splash on the decks and the bow doesn’t pearl, period. Wenonah decked the Recon 30 inches from the bow and stern to shed water and add style. It looks tidy, but in my opinion just adds weight and makes draining a nuisance. If it were my boat, I’d take them off.

The highly adjustable outfitting in our Recon was the work of Wenonah western sales rep, Kurt Renner. The base of the two-piece saddle glues to the hull; the top—the part you sit on—attaches with Velcro and moves forward or backward to adjust trim. Also adjustable are the knee pads, which Velcro to strips on the floor. Single thigh straps thread through pre-installed loops. Behind the seat on each side are foam block ankle ris­ers—you’ll want to shape these to suit. Vinyl float bags are included.

With only Velcro holding it down, I thought all the foam would rip out in the first hole, but the only thing ripped out of the Recon was me. Yup, I swam. Without foot pegs and with single thigh straps, it is almost impossible to stay in. For many old school paddlers, I bet that’s okay, preferred in fact. The rest of us can order the Re­con as a naked hull and take the time to dress it ourselves.

While most of the open boat world is riding old designs or innovating with very niche models, the Recon offers class II–III canoeists a cruisy new option that’s smooth and stable, just like all solo boats used to be.

 

MATERIAL: ROYALEX

LENGTH: 13’

MAX WIDTH: 29”

ROCKER: 6”

HULL WEIGHT: 57 LBS

MSRP: HULL $1,099 or FACTORY OUTFITTED $1,899

www.wenonah.com

 

 

This story originally appeared on page 24 of the Early Summer 2012 issue of Rapid magazine. Read the entire issue here.

Video: Hell or High Water III

Photo: Rapid Staff
Video: Hell or High Water III
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We got to race and relax at the Hell or High Water Event on the Petawawa River. One of the fastest growing races in paddlesports the HOHW Event brings in hundreds or kayakers, rafters, canoeist and spectators from all over. Check out some of the action and find out how the event started and why it matters to so many people.

Duluth Packs Monarch Gear Review

Duluth Packs Monarch Canoe Pack
Photo: Duluth Packs

A review of the Duluth Packs Monarch traditional portage pack from Canoeroots & Family Camping magazine.

Duluth Pack perfected the olive drab canvas canoe pack in the 1800s. Since then, the brand has become synonymous with traditional portage packs. After years of making custom modifications to their original packs, Duluth built the 95-liter Monarch—a full-featured pack that doesn’t abandon time-tested materials or compromise craftsmanship. Constructed of rugged 18-ounce canvas, it has padded leather shoulder straps and a removable waist belt, tump and sternum strap. The pack sits low to accommodate the carrying of a canoe. Adopt Duluth’s liner system to get the most out of the Monarch. Start by inserting a folded sleeping pad into the rear inner sleeve, providing extra cushioning. Then, pack the included 6-mil poly liner to protect items that need to stay dry. Finally, stuff the inner pockets with other loose items like saws, tent poles and rain gear. Outer side pockets provide quick access to smaller items.

 

A VIDEO REVIEW OF THE DULUTH MONARCH CANOE PACK FROM CANOEROOTS MAGAZINE

 

This article originally appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2012. Download our freeiPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.

Granite Gear Superior One Gear Reivew

A review of the Granite Gear Superior One portage pack from Canoeroots & Family Camping magazine

The Superior One uses a harness reminiscent of a high-quality hiking backpack mounted onto a bag that’s sized for a canoe—a rare blend in portage packs. Its padded back panel forms for comfort and distributes weight evenly with help from wide, contoured shoulder straps and a cushy, interchangeable waist belt. Choose from two sizes to customize torso fit. Top load the colossal 121-liter capacity using dry bags for optimal protection—the Superior One is water-resistant, not proof. The Cordura and ballistic nylons used in the pack’s body bottom do, however, stand up to being dragged, snagged, tossed and sat on better than dryer, vinyl alternatives. The pack’s side pockets and lash points, features absent on lower-end models, make carrying loose items easy.

www.granitegear.com | $220

 

A VIDEO REVIEW OF THE GRANITE GEAR SUPERIOR ONE CANOE PACK FROM CANOEROOTS MAGAZINE

 

This article originally appeared in Canoeroots & Family Camping, Spring 2012. Download our freeiPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.

Growing Up Fishing

Photo: Scott MacGregor
Growing Up Fishing

There were strict rules. The most important rule: Announce your cast. When I heard, “Casting Daddy,” I was on full alert. In the bow of the canoe, my three-year-old son sat swinging a wooden minnow armed with razor-sharp treble hooks.

Fishing with children is a long-term investment. Successful investors know that to achieve higher returns in the long run, you have to accept short-term risk. Like, say, a hook in the arm.

The fishing industry also knows the value of investing in children at a young age, and the earlier the better. Someone who comes to fishing at age 10 will spend far more over his lifetime than someone who takes up fishing in his twenties. The earlier you have a rod in your hand, the more avid you’re likely to be and the later in life you’re likely to fish. Not to mention you will be more likely to take your own children or grandchildren fishing—investing in another generation.

Both my kids have had their own rods and tackle from an early age. One of their favorite parts of fishing is sorting and choosing lures. So far, five-year-old Kate chooses her hard plastic baits by color. She’ll ask me to put on the cute pink one or little Blue Betty. Sorting and organizing their tackle is part of the experience. Sure it’s expensive, but still cheaper and better money spent than Wii Hooked! Real Motion Fishing.

Throwing blue and silver minnow lures into shady eddies on our home river isn’t like feeding worms to sunfish on a cane pole. In the beginning, Doug would hang onto his rod for a couple turns of the reel but never long enough to get a frisky smallmouth bass anywhere near the gunwales. “Dad… Dad… HELP!”

Fishing with kids can be tedious and stressful. But with vision and patience, there are huge paybacks. And not everything along the way needs to be reinvested; there are certainly dividends, payouts worth more than cash, stock or property.

Last summer, when Doug was six, we stumbled on the best river bass fishing I’d ever experienced. Bass were jumping at our lures dangling over the side of the canoe.

Rules be damned. Without warning, Doug fired a perfect cast to the far side of a large, deep eddy. A smallmouth hit his Rapala and shot out of the water shaking furiously. It was pretty clear to Doug, and to me, he was in for the fight of his little life.

I set down my rod and began to crawl over the canoe packs, tackle trays and blue barrels, expecting him to hand me his rod. He was losing line faster than his fingers could reel it in.

“Pass over your rod, Doug,” I suggested.

He jammed the butt of the rod in his belly button below his PFD, leaned back bracing his feet against the gunwales and started cranking like an offshore fisherman battling an angry marlin.

“No way, Dad. Get the net, I’m going to land this mother!” 

This article on fishing with kids was published in the Spring 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

 

The Perfect Tump

Photo: Conor Mihell
The Perfect Tump

Seventeen feet of old-school canvas and cedar makes you think differently about portages. I’ve carried relatively lightweight kevlar and Royalex canoes for hundreds of kilometers, but my big green prospector is different. It weighs an honest 82 pounds bone-dry and considerably more after a few days of travel.

Luckily, the legion of trippers who’ve lugged such waterlogged beasts in Temagami and the North Woods of Maine have come up with a clever way to bear the weight—one that’s equally effective on lighter contemporary canoes.

Maybe you’ve discovered the advantages of the tumpline on your favorite portage pack—the way it transfers weight from shoulders to spine and enables you to move massive loads. Rigged on the center thwart or carrying yoke of a canoe, the tumpline has similar advantages: a properly adjusted tump positioned just above your forehead actually lifts the canoe off of your shoulders and eliminates the pressure points of portaging. When your head and neck become fatigued, slipping out of the tump moves the weight back onto your shoulders, providing some respite on long carries.

Traditional outfitters sell leather tumplines that are designed for carrying canoes.

Look for one with a two-inch-wide head strap measuring about 15 inches long that’s securely riveted to five- to seven- foot tails. It’s also possible to build your own with leather, canvas or nylon webbing.

On canoes with carrying yokes, wrap the tails of the tumpline on either side of the contoured portion of the yoke and secure them with a simple hitch near the gunwales. The tumpline will only work if it fits tight; for me, this means fastening it to the yoke as close to the headpiece as possible.

It’s easy to use your paddles to create a carrying yoke on canoes equipped with straight center thwarts. Tie a thin cord permanently to the thwart with spaces for the paddle blades and enough room for your head in between. The blades should be aligned with your shoulders. Loosely secure the grip ends of the paddles on a seat or thwart. Then attach the tumpline, wrapping the tails so that the paddles can slide in and out of position without the need to remove the tump.

Once you’ve lifted the canoe (unfortunately a tumpline won’t help you there), slip the tump over the crown of your head and feel the weight of the canoe levitate from your shoulders. It helps to hold the tump near your jaw with one hand; use your other hand to keep the canoe resting level. 

This article on tumplines was published in the Spring 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.

 

Catching the Bug

Photo: Larry Rice
Catching the Bug

I really don’t know what made me want to explore the world, let alone in a canoe.

I grew up in a Chicago suburb where Wisconsin was considered somewhere far-off and foreign. Maybe it was my inexplicable interest in African wildlife; I visited Chicago’s stately Field Museum of Natural History, with its immense African Hall, every chance I got. Or maybe it was my penchant to devour classics like Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Even the Mississippi River was exotic and enthralling to a city kid.

But, digging deeper, I believe it was my discovery of canoeing that helped rock my sheltered world. Seeking a means to commune with nature somewhere closer to home than Africa, I purchased an Old Town Tripper and ventured—often blundered—through places I had only imagined up to then: the Florida Everglades, Missouri Ozark rivers, spectacular canyons of the Rio Grande. My horizons quickly expanded far beyond the urban jungles and cornfields of Illinois.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to canoe in 25 countries and on all seven continents, but I’m still humbled by how big our planet is and how precious little of it I have visited. Running my index finger over the smooth curve of a globe in my living room in central Colorado, my mind begins to wander. I dream about canoeing far-flung places with challenging waters, unfamiliar cultures and more unknowns than knowns: Botswana, Tasmania, Peru, Ellesmere Island, Vietnam, Moldova. The list goes on and on.

It’s impossible to see around the bend, which only raises the possibilities.

I like that about traveling, about paddling. Once you slip your bow into the current and let it usher you downstream, everything is possible, or seems to be.

When everything clicks on a paddling trip, I find not only the rugged wilderness I am seeking, but also a new way of appreciating the world. An appreciation of the unique qualities of the country I am visiting—its history, culture and the people I reach out to and meet along the way. Traveling by canoe allows me to discover my internal compass as well as be guided by an external one. By going with the flow, not fighting it, I find myself floating through life and oftentimes laughing along the way.

Following the path of the paddle these past 35 years, my passion for travel still burns as bright today as when I was that youngster fantasizing about tripping down Ol’ Man River. 

This article on exploring the world by canoe was published in the Spring 2012 issue of Canoeroots magazine.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2012 issue of Canoeroots Magazine.