Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Dugout Pictures, Paddles and other LInks

No theme to this post: just various links to items of possible interest:


I've done Google image searches for the term "dugout canoe" any number of times with mediocre results. But our friend Silvio Antunha searched for the equivalent of "indigenous canoe" on Google's Brazilian site, and came up with great results:
http://images.google.com.br/images?q=fotos+canoa+ind%C3%ADgena&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:pt-BR:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=rc5oS7aAFNOWtge-jKnaBg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBkQsAQwAw
The image below is just one of many intriguing search results. Standing up and poling in rapids in a heavily-built dugout! Wish I could read Portuguese and learn more about this.


Next: Redtail Paddle Co. makes very reasonably priced canoe paddles. Not quite works of art, but good value for good-quality paddles that are not without aesthetics, and worlds away from the things you'll find at most department stores, which more resemble the results of an unholy coupling between a 2X4 and a baseball bat. I wish their website was easier to navigate, but it's worth the effort if you're looking for an inexpensive paddle, either laminated or carved/one-piece. (Note, the prices in the image to the left are Canadian dollars.)

Closer to works of art are the laminated paddles of Whiskeyjack, shown below. These are just lovely. There's a video clip from a Minnesota television program featuring the builder of these paddles here.




Still on the subject of paddles, here's a nice video called "Song of the Spokeshave," showing Graham Warren carving of a one-piece Algonquin-style paddle. Thanks to Kathryn Klos at the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association for calling out this one.


Finally, a couple of events:.
  • Every year I attend the Maine Canoe Symposium, in Bridgton, and have a great time. This year's dates are June 11-13.
  • As a new member of the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association, I plan to attend their Annual Assembly for the first time. This year it's July 14-18 at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH.

2 comments:

  1. A few years back, I discovered a number of dugouts in small-town Northern Wisconsin museums. Before that, I had always been under the impression that this was strictly bark canoe territory. The dugouts were apparently confined to a given lake for local transport, fishing and rice harvesting. They coexisted with bark canoes which were apparently used for application that involved portaging. The dugouts were too heavy for that.

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  2. Wolfgang - thanks for this. I will try to post soon on the use of dugouts in the northern part of the U.S. midwest, which surprised me too.

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