In the spirit of the olympics, now in full swing; I thought I might share the um… wilder side of paddling.
Freestyle canoeing! Freestyle canoeing is essentially the figure skating of paddling. A paddler in costume, (though not always) sets a series of maneuvers to music in a solo canoe on flat water. I believe there is a tandem or couples event as well. Would love to see videos of that. The rules for a sample competition are here, if you are morbidly curious.
There are those that would say any judged competition is not a real sport, there are those that would say if it is set to music and you have to wear tights it must be for sissies, well maybe; but damn if the freak flag isn’t flying high and proud in these videos. I wonder if Justine Curgenven will have freestyle in the final cut of This is Canoeing?…
Editors note: I think I spotted Will Ferrel in the first video, so look out for Blades of Glory II, Freestyle Canoeing.
9 comments
Pearlene Maccarthy says:
November 11, 2011 at 5:12 pm (UTC -5)
I admire your work , regards for all the good posts .
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November 11, 2011 at 9:54 am (UTC -5)
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data recovery boston says:
November 10, 2011 at 4:45 pm (UTC -5)
I definitely enjoy every little bit of it and I have bookmarked your blog.
Sea Kayaking Trips says:
April 20, 2010 at 8:17 pm (UTC -5)
Jonathan Hammond from NY did a great routine with the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Well done!
j o h n says:
February 26, 2010 at 9:58 pm (UTC -5)
These are all Canadiens, right? Occams razor, and all that.
justine says:
February 26, 2010 at 5:36 am (UTC -5)
hi Ketih,
Yes, freestyle is in the final cut of “This is Canoeing”. former gold medalists Karen Knight and Bob Foote peform beautiful routines – Karen gives a graceful solo dance, and Bob and Karen do a tandem routine. This film, called ‘Canoe Dance’ is playing at the Reel Film festival around America and Canada. You can see a preview of it on the Reel Film Festival website. http://www.reelpaddlingfilmfestival.com/
Steve says:
February 25, 2010 at 10:50 am (UTC -5)
I’m fairly certain freestyle made it into TiC. Here’s a short film featuring Karen Knight called “Canoe Dance” by JC.
http://www.blip.tv/file/3221021/
marius says:
February 25, 2010 at 8:34 am (UTC -5)
Lovely! Do you guys invite any Freestylers to the WMCKA symposium?
kwikle says:
February 25, 2010 at 3:06 pm (UTC -5)
We invited Mark Molina, former gold medalist freestyle canoeist.