we've come quite far...

[Craig Smerda]

http://vimeo.com/20975551" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

be certain to pay attention around 5:20-ish

[TNbound]

Oh man. My shoulders hurt just looking at those paddles.

Don't we (and by we, I mean some obscure locations in Europe) still have those crazy stand-up pontoon shoe things? I thought I saw a more recent video featuring them...

[Walsh]

New rule: all canoeing videos need to open with Mahler V.

[Rand C1]

The tandem OCs all had full skirts. I wonder what they had for floatation. 1957, wow

[Jim Michaud]

Back in the Gruman days we never had any floatation. We never had thigh straps either so if we tipped over, our heads would seldom go underwater. Helmets weren't worn until thigh straps became fashionable. One or more of the more experienced paddlers in the group would carry a 50-foot, half inch dacron rope and a come-a-long. Winching Gruman canoes off of rocks were a daily occurance.

One day I tied a truck inner tube under the two center thwarts and figured that the canoe would now survive anything. That was the day that I wrapped the canoe so bad that we were never able to recover it. The better rivers in those days were littered with aluminum.

Jim