Canoeing

Canoeing is fun if you love the outdoors!

• Canoeing is the sport of propelling an open canoe, using a paddle.
• Canoeing was originally a form of long distance transportation in North America, the Amazon basin and Polynesia, as well as many other countries.
• Scottish explorer, John MacGregor, after experiencing canoeing in Canada and the US in 1858, started constructing his own canoes on his return to the United Kingdom.
• The main competitive canoeing sport is racing, although canoe polo, playboating, extreme racing and surf skiing are also conducted.
• Different boats are used and made for different types of canoeing sports such as whitewater and playboating canoes.

Canoeing
Image courtesy of The Photo Holic/ Free Digital Photos

• Experienced canoeists typically steer from the stern and beginner canoeists typically steer from the bow, with the paddles.
• Experienced canoeists, that canoe in shallow river, use a setting pole to propel the canoe forwards.
• The sport of canoeing first appeared in the Olympic games at Paris, 1924.
• Canoeists have to keep their centre of mass low, so they don’t capsize the canoe.
• Canoes were traditionally made from wood and bark, then wood and canvas, and from there progressed to aluminium.  Most canoes today are made from moulded plastic or a composite like fibreglass.

Bibliography:
Canoeing 24 November 2012, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canoeing>