Talk:Canadian canoe

Merge with canoe
This article should be redirected to canoe, the subject is already covered there. The notion of the canoe being called a "Canadian" seems to be an historical or etymological footnote, even in the UK.--Cornellier (talk) 12:40, 25 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Merge. Just an etymological note on the bigger encyclopedic topic of canoe. --Mormegil (talk) 11:11, 21 September 2015 (UTC)

Because this subject is now deleted and not really merged with Canoe, Kayak or Canoe_(disambiguation), here an explanation about the use of the byname "Canadian canoe" in several European countries, for people with a more historical interest in this matter. Because whether we like it or not, in the United Kingdom and other countries like Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden and the Netherlands, a kayak is still considered to be a kind of canoe. Technically, this is understandable, as one can see when converting a whitewater kayak into a decked canoe just by taking out the seat and paddle it kneeling with a single blade paddle. But to distinguish an open or decked canoe from a kayak, a canoe in those countries is then often called a Canadian canoe or 'canadian' for short : e.g. Kanadier in German, Kanadensare in Swedish and Canadees in Dutch.

The practice to use the nickname 'canadian' for a canoe is probably the result of misinterpretations during the development of the sport of canoeing around the year 1880, where the kayak was often seen as the canoe, and an open touring canoe was then called 'Canadian canoe' or 'Canadian' for short from the so-called "Canadian style" canoe from Canada, the then more or less 'approved' open canoe model by the American Canoe Association (ACA), as opposed to the Wood & Canvas canoe from Maine in the United States that was not officially recognized by the ACA until 1934.

For the canoe associations around the year 1880, a canoe was a decked, double-ended boat, propelled with a double-blade paddle or sailed. The open canoes of that time were often identified as 'Peterborough' or 'Rice Lake' canoes, from the locations where early cedar-strip boats were first made, thus 'Canadian' canoes. The canoe associations at the time, however, for large part consisted of somewhat elitist [rich] people with the opinion that a touring canoe was only really good if one could sail well with it. Therefore, only the "Canadian style" canoe was approved by them. Canoes like the birch bark canoe and its direct descendant Wood & Canvas canoe were considered inferior: "a rag canoe, only suitable for workmen and primitive natives" [sic].

In America, the canoe lost its qualifying prefix 'Canadian' not long afterwards and canoes were simply called 'canoes' (open or decked). In several European countries though, people were not aware of these discrepancies, and because they saw kayaks as canoes they kept calling all kind of canoes 'Canadian canoes' -- even the decked whitewater canoes... This has caused much confusion about canoes and kayaks in these countries, also because the byname 'canadian' for canoe is not used consistently, but mainly for touring, whitewater and racing canoes. The fact that a kayak was seen as a canoe was also one of the reasons for women not to be allowed to canoe at the Olympic games until 2020, because one of the arguments was that they were already allowed to canoe because a kayak is a canoe...

Kanoniem (talk) 09:16, 7 May 2018 (UTC)
 * brilliant exposition with which I totally agree and add that even in Italy the Canadian is one of the two types of canoe (the other is the kayak). That for the International Canoe Federation kayak and canadian are two types of boat and for this reason the distinction is made between C1 and C2 and K1 and K2 in all international competitions, such as world championships or Olympic Games. --Kasper2006 (talk) 04:20, 9 April 2020 (UTC)