My Old Town Canoe
As I mentioned in What Are You Doing this Long Weekend I purchased a canoe from a river touring company and I have to say I am very pleased with my purchase. I had narrowed my choice down to two canoes, the Old Town Discovery 158 and the Nova Craft Prospector after reading some reviews.
When I met Adam from Heritage River Canoe & Kayak Company in Brantford Ontario he was able to provide a lot of information on the uses of the two types of canoes. Visually the Nova Craft looked better. It was newer, held it’s colour better, and had webbed seats as opposed to the Old Town’s plastic moulded seats. The Nova Craft was priced slightly higher then the Old Town. But the big thing that swayed me from the Nova Craft to the Old Town was when Adam told me the Nova Craft will take some getting used to for novice paddlers because of it’s curved hull. The Old Town had a flat hull making it stable which is good for a family and for fishing. It’s a little slower in the water, but my wife and I aren’t going to be in any races so it was perfect for us.
We took it to Lake Simcoe this weekend to test it out. My wife, dog and myself got in and the first thing we noticed is how stable it was. We were practically standing in the canoe with one hand on the dock. We were immediately at ease on the water even with my dog leaning over the edge drinking from the lake. The next thing I noticed was how comfortable the plastic moulded seats were. I was in the canoe for over an hour with no back pain or a sore butt.
I had a lot of fun out on the water this weekend practicing my J-stroke and C-stroke. I would like to thank Adam for his help with purchasing the canoe and getting it tied to the top of my car.
I forgot how much fun and how relaxing canoeing can be.
Thanks for the image!
Cheers,
Greg Provance
www.ChangeStartsToday.com
Wooo, this was a great post and a nice canoe you have too! Cannoning is very common in Norway too and is one of my favorite activities
Good to hear about your canoe trip. I recently took one with my friends in the Delaware Water Gap. 17 total miles. Yikes!
Love canoeing! But right now, I get sore even looking at the picture of your new purchase…
My wife doesnt like to do canoeing together since it is not going straigth and she has no patience to go zig-zag.
Beautiful photo! Oh how I miss canoing. I think grew up in a Canoe. This year I’ve been thinking of buying a canoe as well, but so far we haven’t gotten around to it. I’m not sure how much I’d like canoing with my husband anyway (he’s a Brantford guy BTW) as his idea of the ideal canoe trip is sitting in a canoe - not paddling - on the grand and just letting the water slowly move the canoe, whereas I like to move once I’m on board. LOL
Good luck with your new canoe and your paddling. You’re going to love it once you master all the techniques.
BTW I couldn’t get submit comment to work while using firefox - had to switch to IE to leave this for you.
really? I use firefox and it works great!
[…] it was a post about his new canoe that caught my eye. I’m sure by now you guys know how much I love canoing so how can I not […]
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