Canoe Paddling Tips

This page is for someone who is wondering how to paddle a canoe effectively. The best way to learn how to paddle is to take a lesson, but here are some tips that will help you to continue to learn the correct way to paddle.

Tandem Canoe Paddling

Always paddle on opposite sides of the canoe.
Canoes are much less stable when both paddlers are paddling on the same side of the canoe, so it's a good idea to keep your paddles on opposite sides of the canoe. The bow paddler generally chooses which side to paddle on, and the stern paddler goes on the other side.

The canoe will always move to the side that the stern paddler is not paddling on.
Because of the physics of the canoe, the stern paddler will always have more force than the bow paddler, so if the stern paddler is paddling on the left side of the canoe, the canoe will tend to go right, and vice versa. (See the animation on the right) This is why the stern paddler needs to use a correcting stroke like the J-Stroke to keep the canoe in a straight line.

For more information on our canoe lessons, click here.