JIm,

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool canoeist. I've owned a 17' Grumman aluminum canoe and an 18 foot "downriver" Lincoln Kevlar canoe. Plus several bent shaft and straight shaft laminated wood paddles but NEVER a plastic/aluminum paddle.

I once was a certified American Canoe Association Moving Water instructor. The examiner told me to return the next month to get my Whitewater certification but I got into sea kayaking and never went back for the test. I'd say one of my best canoeing skills is a cross-river ferry, going straight across a river facing upstream at a slight angle.

I began canoeing on the Allegheny River at my hometown of Oil City Pennsylvania while training for an Explorer Scout canoe race (my buddy and I won!)

Years later I canoed in the Kipawa Game Preserve in Quebec, The Magnetawan and French rivers in Ontario and other eastern U. S. lakes and rivers.

I have quite a nice canoeing library with all the classic books from Mason and others. With no canoes now I ocassionally rent them . My last canoe trip was in a rented canoe on the Colorado River below Hoover Dam.

Eric B.