[Paddlewise] Maine Canoe Symposium semi-review

It's been about 9 years since my last trip to the Maine Canoe Symposium.
 I love to paddle, and like to go play in other boats and talk to other
paddling nuts which I get the chance.  The canoe symposium is more of a
tripping centered event.  My 9 year old spend some time with the canoe
pole standing in my family canoe (a dual sliding seat vacuum bagged
kevlar wenonah jensen 17).  He hasn't figured out how to use the pole on
the bottom yet, but was comfortable using the pole as a kayak paddle, so
he spent some time standing in the a canoe paddling around the docks and
out around a little island.  My 13 year old was more interested in
swimming than playing in boats.  

The children's program was very good and both kids were busy 75% of the
day.  The younger boy's favorite part of the weekend was the session
with the voyageur re-enactor who explained his voyageur kit to them then
had them trade goods for pelts.  My boys being the finest of sneaks did
their trading with the youngest member of the other team and traded a
small knife (which they had multiples of) for 2 beaver pelts.  

We've been to the symposium a couple of times so I only went to one
seminar, balance and conditioning for paddlers.  
  
Rutabaga had come out with a trailer load of single canoes for people to
try.   I don't know if it's true but was told that sales of single
canoes outpaced sales of kayaks - this might be for wenonah/current
design, or rutabaga.  I still see a ton of inexpensive kayaks in my
local shops.

The wenonah fusion is clearly aimed at the fisherman market.  The 13
foot canoe had a rudder assembly, 3 rod holders in front of the seat, a
padded seat with a flip up padded backrest, plus a rod holder behind the
seat.  The 3 position rod holder in front of the seat was built like a
molded tool holder, with multiple slots to hang fishing hooks and tools
from the rod holder/tool rack.

I tried a few solo canoes this morning before most people got up (from 5
to 6:30) and latched onto a bell flashfire (now built by placid
boatworks).  Nice hull.  I spent about an hour carving turns, side
slipping, seeing how far I could go without making a sound - no gurgling
from the hull and no dripping from the paddle...  Seeing if I could do a
180+ degree turn with a single fixed position stroke....  At one point I
was within 40 feet of a loon, not stalking the bird, he was just there.

For the competition for the weekend I entered a mixed generation
"canoe-a-thon" with a 10 to 12 year old girl who wanted a partner.  We
race out and around an island, portaged the paddle 30 yard in a loop
through the trees, tied a bowline knot, poled back around the dock then
threw a throwbag 30 feet through a hula hoop target.  I clearly have not
spent much time with a throw bag...  We had to reload the bag twice,
then were allowed to run the bag to the target.  There was some
excellant crashing of canoes into each other during the paddling portion
- love the sound of colliding aluminum boats - with an inexperienced bow
paddler...  We just beat our a maine guide and his son who were our
closest competition - I'm glad his son took the first throwbag toss we
needed all the time delay we could get when we got to the bag toss.

Sunday's events ended with a voyageur canoe race.  Winona camps has a
pair of 11 person canoes.  We put 12 people in each boat.  The bow
paddler being jammed right up against the bow deck, with no thwart.  The
race was billed as a "grudge match" between sternmen.  Harry Rock
representing the old guard, 19 year old Ben Meader representing the
youngsters.  Harry recruited me at dinner saturday night.  I suggested
to Ben that next year he needed to plan ahead as he only asked me to
join his boat an hour before the race.  Team Rock had a somewhat stacked
team, there seemed to be more kids on Ben's team, but Ben's team did
quite well, finishing just a boat length or two behind team rock.

With any luck kid sports scheduling next spring will be such that I can
go back...

Kirk
-- 
  Kirk Olsen
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