New Book: Fighting Strong Winds In A Canoe

I headed to Take Cover Books in Peterborough, Ontario this week for the launch of a brand new canoeing book called Fighting Strong Winds in a Canoe by John Etches. I have known John for over a decade and we’ve had numerous great conversations about canoeing and related to this book… canoeing safety.

He kicked off his presentation by stating that we’ve all planned for rain on canoe trips… and planned for cooler weather… but had any of us planned for extreme winds? It’s a very true statement because while weather is something you pack for, wind can always sneak up on you and put you in a dangerous situation.

I remember that John used to run the Ontario Parks booth at MEC Paddlefest in Toronto. Part of the festivities was a game he used to play on a white board where he would draw a hypothetical lake, then put magnets on it to indicate wind direction. The Paddlefest attendees would have to show how they would safely navigate the lake which was always entertaining. This book is the evolution of that game that has been fine tuned to such an extent that the instructor that in turn teaches the ORCKA instructors wants to implement the fundamentals in this book next year.

In this book John walks you through the best choices for direction of travel and how to take in to account how the wind will rotate your canoe, when to take breaks, and the fundamentals of his own Extreme Wind Route Correction Tool.

Get your own copy at Take Cover Books, the Canadian Canoe Museum, Wild Rock Outfitters and if you’re not in the Peterborough area, Amazon.ca.