Watching the 2024 Olympics. I was all pumped up when they announced the Canoe Event. Yay! But what gives? They look like kayaks, skirt and all except for the single blade paddle. Where's the line between canoe and kayak?
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Olympics Canoe or Kayak
- Thread starter Roybrew
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Historically, the International Canoe Federation rules specified that a canoe was higher at the ends than the middle, the paddler would kneel, and used a single bladed paddle. Kayaks were lower at the ends than the middle, the paddler sat, and used a double bladed paddle. Most of this went away in the mid-1970s.
Benson
Benson
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I was hoping to see open canoes with float bags shooting the rapids. I have nothing against kayaks, even tho they are inferior to canoes, ah yeh I guess opinions are like rear ends everyone's got one.
Had to check: "3.1.2 - Canadian canoes are decked boats propelled by single-bladed paddles.The athlete must be kneeling inside the canoe." ICF rules
That applies to the slalom events.
There are two types of canoe races in the Olympics, whitewater slalom and flatwater sprint.
The whitewater slalom canoeists have always used decked canoes (C1s). Decked canoe hulls look essentially like kayak hulls. The decked canoeist kneels on a pedestal and uses a single blade.
Flatwater sprint canoeists paddle open canoe delta hulls from a high kneel position with single blades.
The whitewater slalom canoeists have always used decked canoes (C1s). Decked canoe hulls look essentially like kayak hulls. The decked canoeist kneels on a pedestal and uses a single blade.
Flatwater sprint canoeists paddle open canoe delta hulls from a high kneel position with single blades.
Here's a video clip of the men's C1 slalom final:
The Slalom C1 finals yesterday were fantastic, the last paddler blew everyone away with no penalties and the best time by 5 seconds.
The decked canoeist kneels on a pedestal
No pedestals in the CI boats that I could see, don't know where you would fit one given the very shallow depth of those boats.
The sole Canadian in the final had a bad day, not only missed a gate but I caught him switching his paddle several times.
The one thing I really liked was on one of the upstream gates quite a few paddlers were pushing off from the bank to get back into the main flow to be on target for the next downstream gate on the opposite side of the course.
The video posted is geoblocked for me, here is a link to a Canadian version
The decked canoeist kneels on a pedestal
No pedestals in the CI boats that I could see, don't know where you would fit one given the very shallow depth of those boats.
The sole Canadian in the final had a bad day, not only missed a gate but I caught him switching his paddle several times.
The one thing I really liked was on one of the upstream gates quite a few paddlers were pushing off from the bank to get back into the main flow to be on target for the next downstream gate on the opposite side of the course.
The video posted is geoblocked for me, here is a link to a Canadian version
You can see the pedestal in gold medalist Gestin's C1 as he picks it out of the water at the end of the video clip I posted. His run was brilliant. Silver medalist Burgess executes a cross-bow brace, which is a unicornly difficult recovery move, at 1:28 of the video clip.
I'll be avidly watching the C-1 events. In my youth I paddled a Berry C-1 regularly on the Lehigh River, in northern PA. And practiced the English Gate sequence in pools and ponds! I even paddled that boat in the ocean off South Bristol, ME, surfing the tidal rollers at the mouth of the Johns River near McFarland Cove. I even had a close encounter with a dolphin?, porpoise? It's the first boat I ever Eskimo rolled in.
The greatest female whitewater paddler ever, Australia's Jessica Fox, won gold in both K1 and C1, and has now won more Olympic whitewater medals than anyone in history, female or male.
The first video are the runs of Fox and the silver medalist, Germany's Elena Lilik. The second video is of the bronze medalist, USA's Evy Leibfarth, who was the lowest seeded finalist and who is the first American to win a slalom medal since 1984. Note that the women's C1 paddlers frequently switch paddling sides depending on the rapids architecture, which used to be frowned upon.
The first video are the runs of Fox and the silver medalist, Germany's Elena Lilik. The second video is of the bronze medalist, USA's Evy Leibfarth, who was the lowest seeded finalist and who is the first American to win a slalom medal since 1984. Note that the women's C1 paddlers frequently switch paddling sides depending on the rapids architecture, which used to be frowned upon.
I keep wondering,"where do they hide their #4 Duluth pack?"
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Thanks for posting these. Quite astounding to watch.
I was wondering “where are the rocks?”
Off topic, but yesterday my YouTube channel took me from canoeing to women’s wall climbing. I was blown away. They go up that wall like lightning.
I was wondering “where are the rocks?”
Off topic, but yesterday my YouTube channel took me from canoeing to women’s wall climbing. I was blown away. They go up that wall like lightning.
I love watching climbing. In the Olympics, there will be medals for speed climbing, which is what you may be describing. Speed climbing is the fastest sport in the world. It's over in less than 5 seconds for men and 7 seconds for women. There is another set of medals for the combo of boulder climbing and lead climbing. Janja Garnbret of Slovenia is the dominant woman in this event—the Jessica Fox/Simone Biles of women's boulder/lead climbing. However, the USA has two strong competitors in Natalia Grossman and Brooke Raboutou.
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Yes. A really bony run or two where the participants bounce boats off of big goonies might be fun.
i don't think any of these specialists would get through a boulder garden with a normal canoe loaded for a pack tour ...
i don't think any of these specialists would get through a boulder garden with a normal canoe loaded for a pack tour ...
I bet you'd be surprised.
Maybe not the sprinters but I bet the whitewater guys would do just fine.
Alan
I agree with Alan. The sprint canoeists wouldn't do well at all unless some are closet whitewater paddlers (as if they'd have time for that sort of thing with their training schedules), but the whitewater paddlers likely would do very well simply because they know reading the water and how whitewater works. If they aren't already, they'd have to get used to the much longer and heavier boat for a little bit of time (and complain all the while about the lack of responsiveness!), but I think they'd do very well indeed.I bet you'd be surprised.
Maybe not the sprinters but I bet the whitewater guys would do just fine.
Alan
I was a swimmer all the way through high school and college so I'm focused on that right now, but I am watching some of the slalom vids. I don't think the sprint canoe-kayak stuff has started yet, or at least I haven't seen any. Haven't looked very hard.
Men's flat water C2 500 meter open canoe final:
Thanks for posting the vids—very impressive.
How about the crowds? I had no idea canoeing was so popular!
A group of paddlers on a trip I was leading on the Potomac stopped by the whitewater course at Dickerson, Md in the early 2000s. There we encountered the Olympic C2 team of Matt Taylor and Joe Jacobi, practicing with a coach. Just three men and a whitewater course. They were very down to earth guys and said they appreciated having somebody watch them. I believe they were the only Olympians I every met.
It impressed me that people dedicate their lives to a somewhat obscure sport like C2, and they get very little recognition or material reward out of it. I never met him, but have done business with Davie Hearn, another former Olympic paddler. He was running Sweet Composites, purveyor of boat building supplies (good outfit, I highly recommend). After an extraordinary paddling feats, he works a job like an ordinary guy. Perhaps things will be different for today’s Olympians. Twenty years ago, there wasn’t much coverage of less popular sports. Now, media coverage is omnipresent and freely available for consumption at our leisure. Maybe that will translate to fame and wealth.
How about the crowds? I had no idea canoeing was so popular!
A group of paddlers on a trip I was leading on the Potomac stopped by the whitewater course at Dickerson, Md in the early 2000s. There we encountered the Olympic C2 team of Matt Taylor and Joe Jacobi, practicing with a coach. Just three men and a whitewater course. They were very down to earth guys and said they appreciated having somebody watch them. I believe they were the only Olympians I every met.
It impressed me that people dedicate their lives to a somewhat obscure sport like C2, and they get very little recognition or material reward out of it. I never met him, but have done business with Davie Hearn, another former Olympic paddler. He was running Sweet Composites, purveyor of boat building supplies (good outfit, I highly recommend). After an extraordinary paddling feats, he works a job like an ordinary guy. Perhaps things will be different for today’s Olympians. Twenty years ago, there wasn’t much coverage of less popular sports. Now, media coverage is omnipresent and freely available for consumption at our leisure. Maybe that will translate to fame and wealth.
