A canoe is a lightweight narrow boat pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel using a single-bladed paddle.
Canoes are used for racing, whitewater canoeing, touring and camping, freestyle, and general recreation. The intended use of the canoe dictates its hull shape and construction material.
Historically canoes were dugouts or made of bark on a wood frame, but construction materials evolved to canvas on a wood frame, then to aluminum. Most modern canoes are made of molded plastic or composites like Fiberglass. Until the mid-1800s the canoe was an important means of transport for exploration and trade, but then transitioned to recreational or sporting use. Canoeing has been part of the Olympics since 1936. In countries where the canoe played a key role in history, such as Canada and New Zealand, the canoe remains an important theme in popular culture.
Canoes can be adapted to many purposes, for example with the addition of sails, outboard motors, and outriggers.
Read more about Canoe: History, Hull Design, Symbolism of The Canoe, Types, Notable Traditional Canoeists, Image Gallery
Famous quotes containing the word canoe:
“Like a canoe route across the great lake on whose shore
One is left trapped, grumbling not so much at bad luck as
Because only this one side of experience is ever revealed.
And that meant something.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“There was something refreshingly and wildly musical to my ears in the very name of the white man’s canoe, reminding me of Charlevoix and Canadian Voyageurs. The batteau is a sort of mongrel between the canoe and the boat, a fur-trader’s boat.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)