First Canoeing Experience

[Sir Adam]

1979, Perry Ellers Rapid on the Hudson (class II /III depending on the level). Short run my father took me down, I don't recall if it was in an Old Town glass boat or something else... or much else about the trip. But apparently I enjoyed it:)

I was 3.

Up through high school I paddled a rejected Millbrook AC DC (prototype we picked up from John Berry when Millbrook was in Riparius) with my father a few times a year. While in college I found out C1's existed... and the fleet has grown ever since! (very briefly I owned a Kayak... till I saw someone C1ing... I sold that Reflex within a month (took that long to find a buyer;) ) and picked up two used C1s- a Cascade and a Slasher. Or rather I bought the Cascade, and he GAVE me the Slasher.

[chuckneese]

Siuslaw River, Oregon, 1966, class two with boy scouts. Have been paddling ever since, eh!

[chuckneese]

You know, if you look at the common factor in most of these stories is Boy Scouts. I know our local scouts in Alabama do a very poor job with canoeing. I am a leader in Cub Scouts, they are not allowed to be in canoes except at camp. They have asked me to make a presentation to the Birmingham area Boy Scout troops on place to go and techniques. Should be interesting.

[Bill M]

A friends parents owned a boys camp on the Greenbrier River in W.Va. When camp wasn't in session he and I would compete in wood and canvas canoes. Gunnel jumping etc.

Cookeville and Nashville, Tn. used to have boy scout schools on the Hiwassee everysummer. The Lost Tribe probably has info on this.
Bill

[djutzi]

furthest back I can remember would be with my father, in a green prospector (that boat is still around actually, but the paint is mighty peeled).

considering my father now thinks I'm crazy for paddling ww, I'm 100% positive that it was on flatwater.

location was likely one of the Provincial Parks in Ontario. Murphy's Point comes to mind.

[scott curtis]

near as i can remember ruffly 14 years ago.. i started seeing kayaks show up at the big rock , where i swam every week-end. our local ww challenge then ,was to see who could swim across the river at the highest level. i felt like that was me but these yakers, they were extremely a closed group, getting them into a conversation proved impossible., so i ventured up river a lil' got a job w/ a rafting company as bus river.. made a couple raft trips w/ them down the noli, and paddled a funyak down it a time or two. then bought a used blue hole 550 bucks, and started introducing myself at put-in to whomever was paddling that day. i tried to run it one year early april, the water is still cold and the cfs was 4,500. the sunburst made it back to put-in about an hour and a half later. went swimming on the rocks , and almost swam to jaws. carrying the sunburst across the railroad tracks, led me to study what level was too much for me. 2800 cfs is pushy. today tho .. equipped w/ a roll , and a zoom.. who knows, but i will be on the lookout for a newbie like i was once, in waters well over my head. today when i go to the big rock, i do what i saw the yakers do back then , and just ignored eveyone on that side of the river.tho unlike the ol' yakers, when someone has a question , i will try to shed a little light if i can. looking back i think the reason for their snobby-ness , was simply the fact that kayaking is easy.. they just seem to enjoy making it look impossible. i do respect the heart of a kayaker.. but you have to have one. running stuff that is gravy and acting like its something.. gives me drive to promote canoeing. why weren't these yaks trying to promote theirs ?, who knows. doing flips and running big water in a yak, i can dig.. they can make it loook fun..but a big group out just to be seen, psft.. i'd rather drink a beer and let yoube ignorant, yall don't bother me no more. i finally got ya to talk ;when i let u slam into my canoe< bump ~

[ezwater]

I paddled a cement mixing trough in my youth, but I waited until after marriage to do the real thing.

[Cheeks]

I've been in a boat before I could walk, and probably talk. The first canoe trips I remember were paddling with my dad, fishing golf balls out of the Bantam River in Litchfield, CT.

First whitewater was years later. I remember looking down the Class I thinking, holy moses, i have to get down that?

[the great gonzo]

Summer 1993, casting off in downtouwn Whitehorse in a rental fiberglass canoe, 3 weeks worth of food in the boat, Bill Mason's Path of the Paddle on my lap (having never been in a canoe before), to do a 400+ mile solo wilderness trip down to Dawson City.
I survived and was hooked ever since.

TGG!

[dixie_boater]

I paddled a rental canoe with my father on the lake at Stone Mt. Park near Atlanta. I don't remember how old I was, but it must have been in the late sixties. I messed around in lake canoes at the park on and off in the seventies. My first river trip was on the metro Hooch in 1981. After that I wanted to go down every creek or river in the north Georgia. If I hadn't made that trip in 1981 I might have missed out on a lot of great adventures I've experienced over the last 29 years.

[Bill M]

Summer 1959, I was 11. Caldwell W.Va at Camp Shamedelica on the Greenbrier River. I had a friend whose family owned the camp. We paddled wood and canvas or aluminum canoes sitting on the back deck, also had gunnel jump races. What fun.
First ww was Caldwell to Roncevert, class 2 at most. I remember being scared cause the current seemed to control us vs what I was used to.
24 yrs later started ww.
Bill

[kaz]

First time was on the Delaware River, Boy Scouts, 1974. It was an overnighter from the The Pahaquarra scout camp in NJ. I was hooked. Bought my first canoe before I got my drivers license. Had to have my parents drive me to the river.

Jkaz

[Jim Michaud]

1954. Went on a week-long Boy Scout canoe trip in the New York Adirondacks. After I bought a house in 1967 I now had a place to store a canoe so I immediately bought a 15-foot Grumman (with lake keel) and it's been whitewater ever since.