quartets

Once you have four canoes, it’s possible to combine two formations to create a third, complex formation. Since that involves a bit of a conceptual leap, it is covered on a separate page; this page keeps to formations where the canoes work in a simple group of four.

Some quartets are simply extensions of what you can do with two or three canoes, four in a file, for example, or a rotating square. For the most part, these are not covered here since you can easily extrapolate them from the duet and trio pages. Other formations make best sense with four [or more] canoes. Those formations are shown below.

In some cases, having four canoes allows a more complex interaction between boats (the interlocking pivot or the pass-through). In other cases it allows additional choices of symmetry.

See also the pages of duets and trios, do-si-dos, group pivots, files and ranks.

These figures represent generic types rather than specific instances. Though they make excellent studies for practising your paddling, the real interest lies in what you can do by varying and connecting these and other formations in a dance.

Ratings: simple (for a competent style paddler) ; challenging ; really hard

Click any figure to see an animation.

interlocking pivot

parallel pivot +