Customer Reviews

Basic Essentials Solo Canoeing, 2nd (Basic Essentials Series)

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This is a great book for anyone who has or is thinking of buying a solo canoe. There are decided design and paddling differences between solo and tandem canoes and Cliff Jacobson covers most of these differences well. He begins telling his own history of using and building solo canoes since 1973 and gives an enthusiastic declaration for paddling solo canoes.
Choosing, tuning and outfitting the solo canoe are thoroughly covered as well as paddle strokes from the midpoint of your canoe. There is a chapter by Harry Roberts on "sit and switch" paddling with a bent shaft paddle and another chapter on freestyle technique by Charlie Wilson. These 2 chapters are alone easily worth the modest price of the book. There is included a short chapter on quick water techniques in a solo canoe. Solo Canoeing also covers camping and portaging the solo canoe and finishes up with sources for canoes and gear as well as a great index and glossary.
This is about the only readily available book on just solo canoeing and it is a really good guide to the nuances and pleasures of paddling solo. I hope to see the author expand this book in a third edition in the future and include a more comprehensive history of solo canoes from the time of the small native canoes (what we call rat boats in Alaska) to the time of Rushton and George Sears in the 19th century. Some of Mr. Jacobson's other books, like "Expedition Canoeing" have a chapter on solo canoes, but this is by far the most comprehensive treatment of the rediscovered and still evolving solo canoe.

To acquire the knowledge and insight that Cliff Jacobson reveals in "Solo Canoeing" would take a lifetime of experience. Save yourself some time and buy this little gem of a book. He covers all the basics: How to buy, equip, paddle, care for and enjoy a solo canoe. Jacobson has been canoeing for almost 50 years and has been writing about it for 30. His accumulated wisdom of the canoeing sport is vast, yet he is able to condense this down to the knowledge you will need to enjoy this sport. He includes a valuable appendix of suppliers who make the products he recommends in his book. I own several of Jacobson's books. Each one has delivered valuable information that was new and useful to my outdoor adventuring.

I'm fairly new to canoeing, did a lot of kayaking (sit on top). I bought a solo canoe because I can't haul camping gear in the kayak. This book has been really helpfull, in bringing me up to speed on canoes and solo operations.

It gives you info on choosing a canoe, paddles, accesories, safety, proper paddling strokes,and camping with your solo canoe. Cliff Jacobson has been plying the waters of northern Minnesota all his life, and knows a little something about canoeing and camping there.

This is a very good reference for anyone new to the world of solo canoeing, I highly recommend this book, you'll learn a lot from Cliff and his vast experience.

It's at least twenty years since I met Cliff, and he was already famous then. One of my friends called him a "woodchuck" because Cliff didn't hesitate to come up with home-made solutions for his camping needs. And once you've made gear of your own, you appreciate more a commercial product that's thoughtfully designed and well made. Cliff has a good eye for gear that works well, although there's little point in naming names in a book since the book almost always outlasts the models and even manufacturers--try to find one of Charlie Wilson's Grade VI packs (if I'm wrong about this, please post!). Granite Gear has more or less replaced Grade VI, but the philosophy is the same. One of Cliff's strongest points is that he emphasizes that enough is enough: you don't need a portage pack that will hold an Abrams tank. Still, I'm of the Colin Fletcher "cavernous sack" school and I just cinch in the side-straps if I have a light load. If you get the Piragis catalogue (and if you're reading this you do or should) you can read Cliff's endorsements of various products. This is a variety of Northwoods humor, not to be taken too seriously as a buying guide but as a reminder that we feel most at home in the woods with homey gear, that an old friend--be it a knife, a daypack, or whatever--is not merely a tool for the present but a tie to the past. Most of all, in this book, Cliff reminds us simply that solo canoeing is the simplest extension of ourselves onto the water--no huge boat on the carry, no spats with the bow-paddler, but the quiet transformation of will into motion. This is not a book for the choir, but if you really like to be on the water and haven't explored solo canoeing, this is the most useful of the very few solo guides you're going to find.

This book gave a great introduction to solo canoeing, and solo boats. Plans for boat covers are included, which are really cool. This isn't a complete guide to canoeing, but a supplement about this specialty, and a very good one at that.

Not much in this book that you can not get from the internet and other free sources. A dollar saved is a dollar earned-- should have just used info I got from the internet for free.