So I saw (and bought) a used copy of "Canoeing" by Ray Goodwin, who is called the UK's best-known canoe coach (I first heard of Goodwin by seeing him on one of Ray Mears' bushcraft videos).

This was out of curiosity more than anything. It's just FILLED with pictures and descriptions of every stroke known to man, plus techniques for every possible situation involving capsizing, rapids and so forth.

Most of it is way beyond me, but it got me to wondering about training and classes and such. So, again I'm curious:

How did you learn to paddle? Just by osmosis and practice?

Or did you take a class? If so, a basic one or detailed, sophistication instruction? Was it worth it? How long did it last? Where taught? What type of water did you practice on? Details  about the instruction would be interesting to me.

(As for me, I first went to Quetico having been in a canoe probably 2 or 3 times. Learned just by doing it and asking questions. I know probably four or five strokes, and 99 percent of my paddling has been on open water (lakes and big rivers), or small creeks, rather than rapids.)

-- kypaddler

Growing up un the U.P., we had an aluminum canoe since I was about 7. I would paddle and fish in our bayou just off Lake Superior,  with my friends. My dad would take me out sometimes too, sometimes on the big lake,, and he gave me the basics. In high school, now in lower Michigan,  I'd go on day trips down the Pine  and Manistee rivers. I guess when I got older and began taking trips to Sylvania and Quetico,  I never really thought about it, paddling just seemed instinctive.

Probably if you saw me paddling, even today, you might say I have never learned!     I got my introduction to canoeing as a college coed in 1966 on the Red Cedar River in East Lansing, in the bow of an aluminum canoe with Spartan1 in the stern.  And I was pretty awful at it!  He was a patient teacher, and I learned to just paddle, first one side and then the other.  Pretty basic stuff.

My first canoe trip was in 1971 and it was not an easy trip.  We did the Namakan River loop, starting out at Crane Lake, and we didn't take a tow boat.  Paddled the Loon River, did the portages, paddled on Crane Lake, Sand Point Lake, LLC, etc.  It was a bit of a baptism of fire for a green newbie and I learned to paddle on a lake, but to this day I have never mastered real bow strokes on something like a winding creek.  I can often hear Spartan1 "sigh" in the stern of the canoe when I screw up on creek maneuvers, so I know I don't do that stuff right.

When we have done rapids, which has been rarely, as he pointed out, I tend to just grab the sides of the canoe and pray!  I am not much help.  But Lady Rapids on the Namakan was a real thrill for me, both times that we ran it.  I am not a brave person by nature, and whitewater canoeing is not my "thing", but that one does stick out as a fond memory. 

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2 of the guys I used to trip with went down or tried to EVERY rapid we ever tried to run. They lined up for the run and just hung on. Their "theory' was the current would carry them through "naturally"  They made some, dumped in most and NEVER learned any better.

I spent 8 weeks each summer at a camp in NH from age 8-12. Canoeing, with instruction, was a frequent activity there.  So I have a very easy J-stroke for lake paddling. I have had no instruction in river/rapid paddling but done it many a time. Despite attempts by my fellow travelors to education me, I am not very good at either reading current or manuevering in it.

It was Scout camp in the early 80's, Canoeing Merit Badge specifically, where I learned the basic strokes and after paddling freely around the lake at Camp Two Bear in WI, acquired my love of the freedom that paddling brings.  Several trips on the Wisconsin and Kickapoo rivers enhanced those skills and then more down the south fork of the Shenandoah years later as a Scout leader revived that lust for the freedom of paddling.  That led to the first wilderness trip in '99 with Scouts into the Quetico.  It wasn't until then that I really honed the basics and began to get into a rhythm that began to feel natural and developed that muscle memory that ST spoke of.  The Shenandoah has a few Class I and II's and I can read a bit of river, but nothing extensive.  I prefer flat or mostly flat water paddling, but would take a remote river trip with perhaps a few folks with some more whitewater skill and a bit of practice on my part.

pd

I also don't recall any instruction on paddling. On my first trip, as a teenager, I just started paddling. I'm sure I watched and learned from other paddlers, but mostly just figured out what worked. Over the years, I have encountered weather conditions of all sorts. I take fewer chances than I did when younger, but still enjoy the freedom and control a paddle gives.

in the early 80's took a pe class with my brother at a local community college. it was fun and informative.  they taught j stroke, diff between lake and river paddling. pull out and catch an eddy. stuff like that.

I grew up with boats so I can't say when I started paddling.  Early teens, I suppose.  I recall a canoe trip on the Whitewater River in SE Indiana (no whitewater on that trip, thank god).  Four people, two aluminum tanks, and lots of turns. I followed Yogi Berra's advice that "you can learn a lot just by watching."  It wasn't pretty but we tracked well and didn't get slammed into the banks.  That was in 1972, a year out of college.

In later years I paddled when I could, doing a lot of trips on local lakes and the Kickapoo River in western Wisconsin with my ex and eventually our kids.  I borrowed and rented boats and continued to learn, slowly, by watching.

Then in 1993 I borrowed a friend's Blackhawk Nighthawk, 13'4" of twitchiness, a dump just waiting to happen.  For two days on the winding Kickapoo River I learned how to paddle a solo canoe without dumping.

In 2000 I finally bought my first canoe, a solo/tandem model, and soon afterwards got a copy of the book, "Paddle Your Own Canoe" by Gary and Joanie McGuffin.  I studied that book - and a few others - backwards and forwards and learned a lot.  I probably unlearned more bad habits than I learned good ones.  I got a Royalex tandem and started doing Class I and II whitewater.  I've had about a dozen boats since then, but I have only five left, two tandems and three solos.

In 2012 I got certified as an American Canoe Assn. moving water canoeing instructor and taught for three years until an autoimmune problem sidelined me, hopefully only temporarily.

My first BW trip was in 2009 with my son.  The learning process was similar: read up on it, listen to people who've been there before, and learn from mistakes. 15 trips later I'm not about to quit.

So I guess the short of it all is that I taught myself through experience, books, and a few friends who were only too happy to help me along.

I watched a Red Rock Wilderness store video on how to do the "J" stroke.