Whitewater paddling for those with a sense of self-preservation.

1. OC-1
A revolutionary sport

2. Why OC-1
An OC-1, or solo canoe is challenging to paddle.
Unlike a kayak, it is hard to be a decent OC-1 paddler.
After that point is reached, however improvement comes
easily. A canoe has little initial stability. On the other hand,
it possesses ridiculous levels of secondary stability. In other
words, a canoe seams very tippy, but a paddler can lean
way over without flipping. Unlike a kayak (or C-1), the
paddler cannot simply punch through any wave or hole,
one must ride over it to avoid swamping. It is a lot harder
to get somewhere you shouldn’t be.

3. Personal Protective Equipment
Open canoeing is
dangerous. Water is cold and
currents are powerful.
Personal protective equipment
must do three things: increase
your buoyancy, protect you
from the cold and protect you
from blunt trauma. Common
items include PFD’s
(lifejackets), helmets, dry suits
or wetsuits, gloves and
booties.

4. The Boat
An OC-1 is an open canoe paddled by a single person. The paddler
sits on a foam saddle in the center of the craft. Their knees are secured by
either thigh straps or a bulkhead. The feet rest on either toe cups or toe pegs.
In order to safely paddle an open boat in white water, it absolutely must be
filled with airbags or properly secured gear. No exceptions, any other
arrangement is a safety hazard. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible,
even easy to “Eskimo roll” an OC-1.

5. My first OC-1 Experience
In late June
of 2014, I borrowed
a Dagger Prophet
from a friend of my
father. It was a
perfect beginners’
boat and I paddled
it on many day
trips with my
family over the
course of the
summer. I was
hooked.

6. My OC-1
This summer I acquired a heavily used Hellman Otter. The
Hellman Otter is a composite boat, the hull is composed of a matrix
of epoxy resin and a proprietary fiber known as Duralite. While not
as durable as Royalex or rotomolded polyethylene, this construction
method is lighter and stiffer. Both of these characteristics, along with
the general hull shape make it a fast boat. At first glance a bystander
would suppose the Otter is extremely edgy, but it is actually very
well-mannered.

7. Initial and Secondary Stability
Every waterborne craft has a stability curve. This curve tells us several
things. The first is the maximum righting moment and the angle of heel at which
this is achieved. The second and most important is the angle of vanishing
stability. The angle of vanishing stability is the angle of heel at which there is no
righting moment being exerted on the craft. In other words, when the angle of
vanishing stability is reached, only a very powerful bracing stroke from the
paddler will prevent the craft from inverting. Predicting the stability of small
craft is made more difficult because the paddler, and thus the center of mass is
mobile.
A watercraft which is said to
be biased towards initial stability will
have a lot of righting moment at low
angles of heel, but a very upright angle
of vanishing stability. On the other
hand, a craft which is said to have a lot
of secondary stability will produce less
righting moment at low angles of heel
and more at high angles of heel, it will
also have a greater angle of vanishing
stability.

8. My First Long Solo Canoe Trip
In early September of 2014, I paddled my canoe as part of a group
from Moricetown to Suskwa crossing on the Bulkley river. This particular
section of the Bulkley is usually rated as a class two or three. Other members of
our group included four inflatable kayaks, two hardshell kayaks and two rafts.
Moricetown to Suskwa is a long stretch of river and we overnighted at about
the halfway point.
The first day started out well, I confidently paddled everything I
encountered without inverting. For the record, a very capable inflatable kayak
paddler in our group flipped twice (inflatable kayaks are incredibly stable). At
about the tenth drop, instead of braving the big water and rooster tails on river
left, I attempted to weasel my way through a rock garden on river right. As I
was pivoting my boat, my stern struck a rock beside me. Upon inspection of
the contact point, I concluded that I had found a previous repair job, as there
was a large amount of very brittle filler chipped off. The damage was not
structural and I hardly noticed it for the rest of the trip.
Just downstream of our camp, Porphyry creek passes through a ten
foot culvert under the highway into a before dropping fifteen feet into a pool
and eventually draining into the river.

9. Damage to my canoe notwithstanding, I ran
Porphyry creek culvert the next day.
In order to run
Porphyry creek, we had to
portage our boats up a
trail, over the highway and
back down into the creek
on the other side. It was a
lot of work, but totally
worth it. After Porphyry
creek, we had to run one
more canyon and then
paddle several kilometers
of flat water before we
reached the take out at
Suskwa crossing.

10. Repairing My Canoe
A previous owner of
my canoe seems to have
damaged and repaired it. It
seems that in doing so they
attempted to re-fair the
chine area with a substantial
amount of brittle filler. This
is what shipped off when I
impacted the rock. I am in
the process of removing the
filler and replacing it with a
mixture of cabosil and
epoxy resin