equipment
To do canoe dance, you need two things: yourself and a canoe. In addition, a paddle is pretty helpful; lifejacket, bailer and whistle are required by law; kneeling pads and other prostheses are solace for the weak-kneed; and buoys can be an aid to practise.

Canoes

The best canoes for Canadian style-paddling are in the shape of the traditional cottage canoes built by such makers as Chestnut and Peterborough. These boats have a moderate rocker front to back, shallow arch bottom, and a bit of tumblehome on the sides. They are shallower than tripping boats like the ever-popular ‘prospector’ (which is also a good solo boat when there isn’t much wind). These traditional cottage boats such as the Chestnut Pal are fine style-paddling boats, seaworthy trippers for up to seven days/two adults, and not bad in whitewater.

The big tests are: does it pivot easily? is it comfortable to paddle? is it pretty?

Wooden Canoes

Wood-canvas canoe makers tend to favour the traditional designs, so they are a good place to start looking for your dream boat. There are lots, but I’ll specially mention three. Pam Wedd of Bear Wood Canoes makes a lovely boat based on the Pal and a fifteen-foot model that would be good for lighter paddlers. Her workmanship and materials are superb and the boats are worth every penny at $3000+ a pop [705-732-1273] . At the other end is the Camp Nominingue canoe, which is a bit rough and more of a tripper, but pivots like a top and is quite inexpensive at about $1500 [888-455-4447]. My own canoe was built by Ken Solway [905-342-3618] from an original Pal mold.

Plastic Canoes

What matters for style-paddling is shape more than material, and a very few plastic canoes have good shapes (most tend to be specialised for other purposes like whitewater or tripping and thus involve designs that undermine their use as style-paddling boats). Two I have liked are the Bluewater Peterborough (after the Peterborough Champlain: available in fibreglass and kevlar for about $1500 up [519-824-1415]) and the Old Town Penobscott (which resembles a Chestnut Pal: available in ABS for about $1200). Always insist on wooden gunwales.

Paddles

Long narrow blades and relatively short shafts (like the paddle on the left). Ottertail and modified ottertail blades are a good compromise for the faint of heart, but really long narrow blades are better. There are a scant handful of careful and enlightened paddle makers out there, but the best is Ray Kettlewell, who is also a friend of mine. Visit his site for more. (He also assembles nice canoes, but paddles are his specialty.) Another friend who makes very nice paddles is Jody-Marc Lalonde.

Other Stuff

For safety equipment, make sure you know the regulations and that your pfd leaves your arms free to move. Kneeling pads: check out gardening stores. The ‘kneeling thwarts’ that some manufacturers install in their boats force your bum up on an angle when you heel the boat and dictate a single fore/aft position; I don’t know any really good paddlers who can stand them. You can download the plan for a decent marker buoy in Acrobat Reader format.