How To Paddle a Canoe
by Red Rock Outfitting

There are three paddle strokes that you need to make a canoe go forward and turn - under control, that is. I've laid them out online so you can see and hopefully understand the basic principles that you will be refining while on a Boundary Waters Canoe Trip.

Paddling a canoe in a straight line is easy. It's not hard. You just have to know a few simple details. The person in the back of the canoe (guy or gal) is responsible for all the steering of the canoe. I don't want to hear any bitching or griping about how the guy in the front seat didn't do this or that right and that's why the canoe zig-zagged all over the lake out of control. The guy in the back steers the canoe by pushing the stern one way or the other to make the canoe up front go the opposite way or in other words - turn.

In canoes that "suck", controlling the canoe from the stern is more of a theory than a reality. Brand X kevlar canoes are "canoes that suck". If you are paddling a canoe that says Souris River Quetico 17 or Quetico 18.5 on it, you are in a canoe that doesn't suck. In fact, you are in the best, most user-friendly, kevlar canoe on the planet. For those of you who paddle "canoes that suck" and think you have something really special, I can hear your "scoffing and hrmmphing" as I type. Try as I might, there is nothing I can do about your unfortunate choice in canoes. You just didn't know any better at the time or you fell prey to snappy marketing. At Red Rock, we are less impressionable...

As a seasoned, expert BWCA outfitter, I don't take "renting-people-canoes-that-suck" lightly. We only rent Souris River Canoes because I'm absolutely-to-the-core convinced they are better than any other Brand X kevlar canoe. Souris Rivers are more user-friendly and more durable which makes them safer than any other Brand X kevlar available today. Being an outfitter with great integrity, if I could find a better kevlar canoe, I would rent it in a heartbeat. Unlike a lot of Brand X kevlar canoes out there, Souris River Queticos actually turn and can actually be controlled by the stern paddler. While it's always helpful, one does not need a bow paddler who is highly skilled in canoe control. That's why we only rent Souris River Canoes.

While we can't totally erase the inherent possibility of someone dying on a wilderness canoe trip in an unfortunate mishap, we try very hard to minimize the possibility. Accident prevention is always our goal, but you sometimes just can't fix stupid...or fate. We do our best.

The paddling photos at the links below that you'll see are of me in a Souris River Quetico 17. Hopefully, you'll find the information useful. You'll be bouncing in and out of our store site which is redrockstore.com. If you get lost, you were at redrockoutfitting.com

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