Craft your own wooden paddles and canoes

LOTS OF COURSES TO TEACH A HISTORIC CRAFT

By Jenna Thompson

THERE’S SOMETHING special about canoeing with a handcrafted paddle. Very cool, very expensive looking, you might think. But you don’t have to buy one from a master woodworker. You can make your very own with one of these craftsmen teaching you. It’s a perfect activity while waiting for the weather to warm up.

And you could graduate to making an entire canoe or stand-up paddleboard.

The Ottawa City Workshop (https:// ottawacitywoodshop.com/) and My Urban Workshop (http://www.myurbanworkshop. com/) both offer paddle-making courses, with sessions ranging from six to 16 hours.

Andy Convery of Echo Paddles, who teaches at the Ottawa City Workshop, says participants range from experienced cabinetmakers to people who have never picked up a hand plane. He covers basic shapes and design, choice of wood for strength and weight, and all the skills from cutting and planing to jointing and laminating. Results range from stand-up paddleboard (SUP) paddles, and touring, whitewater or flatwater canoe paddles.

Over at My Urban Workshop, participants carve a solid cherry wood canoe paddle. Lee Valley has offered paddle making courses in the past – check its schedule for upcoming offerings. The extra ambitious can learn to make an entire canoe or paddleboard at Algonquin College. Teams of six students work together to build a 17-foot cedarstrip canoe. Then there’s a raffle with the prize being an opportunity to buy the finished product for the cost of the materials; but everyone leaves knowing how to make their own.

My Urban Workshop, founded by Greg Anderson, will run an eight-day canoe-making course with a similar format this summer. Since stand-up paddleboarding has become so popular in recent years, he will offer a four-day SUP-building course. Pairs of students con struct SUPs using computer controlled cutting technology, marine plywood and fibreglass.

Keep an eye on the websites as they tend to offer these courses yearly and whenever there is sufficient demand. You could end up with a one-of-a-kind piece that’s guaranteed to get attention on the water. Φ

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