Paddles Across Canada

Paddles Across Canada is a program offering any resident of Canada the chance to carve their own paddle.

Long before airplanes, roads or the railway paddles connected this country. The network of paddling options through Canada made it unique in the world and long before Europeans visited these shores canoes and paddling where the vessels of communication and commerce.

From the cedar paddles pulling the great ocean going canoes of the west coast to the hardwood paddles and light canoes of the people of the boreal forests paddles have tied this land together for thousands of years.

There is something special about carving your own paddle. See how these participants of an ISEF partner program – Preparing Our Home – feel about paddle carving:

The workshops across the country have been held everywhere from cafeterias to  workshops, from libraries and council chambers to picnic tables outside and in dozens of classrooms across the country. One thing is common in all these workshops – the joy of the participants and their shared experience.

Here is a series showing a typical workshop experience:

First day with paddle blanks ready to carve.

Learning how to use the draw knife.

Hand planes can be tricky to adjust right

Sometimes even a dust mask needs to smile.

Working from late afternoon into the night the students kept coming back to finish their paddles.

The final results were fantastic: from a cedar blank to a beautiful functional paddle.

Paddling into the Paddle Together Event with their finished paddles and their photographs on the wall:

See the youth photographs as they were printed for the Paddle Together Exhibition here.