MONEY TALKS EXTREME SPORT TRAVEL GUIDE

Money Talks present extreme sports: canoeing

April 29, 2009 11:18 pm Igor English articles only, Extreme water sport activities, Money Talks Present Extreme Sports, Money Talks presents: extreme water sports, Вступление

Money Talks present extreme sports: canoeing

This spring a lot of my friends are practicing or just going to practice canoeing. There are great possibilities to practice it in Europe, as well as in other parts of the world. So let’s get some interesting information about canoeing:

“Canoeing is the activity of paddling a canoe for the purpose of recreation (also called a float trip), sport or transportation . It usually refers exclusively to using a paddle to propel a canoe with only human muscle power. A kayak is propelled using a paddle with two blades where the paddler sits with their legs mostly extended in front of them, whereas canoes are propelled using single- or double-bladed paddles where the paddler – a “canoeist” or “canoer”- is kneeling or sitting on seat or thwart, with their knees bent and their legs more or less beneath them. Kayaks are usually closed-decked boats with a spraydeck, while canoes are usually open boats. There are also open kayaks and closed canoes. Technically, a kayak can be seen as a special kind of canoe. When exactly a canoe can be called a kayak is difficult to determine though, and often arbitrary. Internationally, the term canoeing is used as a generic term for both forms though the terms “paddle sports” or “canoe/kayak” are also used. In North America, however, ‘canoeing’ usually refers only to canoes, as opposed to both canoes and kayaks. Paddling a kayak is also referred to as kayaking. In modern canoe sport, both canoes and kayaks may be closed-decked. Other than by the minimum competition specifications (typically length and width (beam) and seating arrangement it is difficult to differentiate most competition canoes from the equivalent competition kayaks. The most common difference is that competition kayaks are always seated and paddled with a double-bladed paddle, and competition canoes are generally kneeled and paddled with a single-bladed paddle. Exceptions include Canoe Marathon (in both European and American competitive forms) and sprint (high kneeling position). The most traditional and early canoes did not have seats, the paddlers merely kneeled on the bottom of the boat. Recreational canoes and kayaks employ seats and whitewater rodeo and surf variants increasingly employ the use of ’saddles’ to give greater boat control under extreme conditions.

Do you know that canoes were developed over the course of thousands of years primarily by the native people of North America? The actual word we know today as “canoe” originated from the word Kenu meaning “dugout”. Other story is that the word canoe comes from the word canoa, which is said to originally come from the native people (the Arawaks?) in the Caribbean via Columbus to Europe. (But there are also comments that canoa was already an existing word then in the Portuguese language for a feeding trough…). These dugout canoes, essentially large tree trunks that were shaped and hollowed, were used by the Caribs to travel between islands.

Canoeing began to meet the simple needs of transportation across and along waterways. Canoeing was the primary mode of long-distance transportation at one time throughout much of North America, the Amazon Basin, and Polynesia, among other locations.

Sport

The International Canoe Federation is the world wide canoeing organisation and creates the standard rules for the different disciplines of canoe/kayak competition. The ICF recognises several competitive and non-competitive disciplines of canoeing, of which Sprint and Slalom are the only two competing in the Olympic games. The United Sates Canoe Association is widely considered the American authority in sport and recreational canoeing, and recognizes many ICF classes. Other national competition rules are usually based on the rules of the ICF.

Flat-water K4 racing

Sprint- the oldest discipline of ICF canoeing, sometimes referred to as “Flatwater Racing”. It involves:
- kayak
  - K1 – single seat kayak
  - K2 – double seated kayak
  - K4 – 4 seated kayak
- canoe
  - C1 – single kneeling canoe
  - C2 – double kneeling canoe
  - C4 – 4 person kneeling canoe

Flatwater races are over 200m, 500m, 1000m and “long distance racing” such as 2 km or 6 km.

Slalom- competitors are timed in completing a descent down the rapids of a whitewater course, in the process steering their canoes or kayaks through “gates” (a pair of suspended poles about 1 m apart), including going up against the flow, across the flow, and surfing the standing waves of the rapids.

Marathon- longer distance races over mostly flatwater courses, possibly including one or more portages. Course lengths typically vary from about 2 miles to the epic 125 mile.The most extreme courses can be found in South Africa, and grade V sections are not unusual in for example, the Fish River Marathon..

Canoe polo- a fast-action competitive goal-scoring ball game on water, between two teams of 5 players.

Whitewater racing (also known as Wild Water Racing) – Competitors race specialised canoes or kayaks down a whitewater river (typically class II to IV whitewater is used).

Canoe sailing- racing a canoe using sail power. “
Please find some photos I can share with you to show the beauty of the sport. Please comment the article, share your experience, maybe place some good photos of yours.