The thread about capsize got me remembering how when we were kids we'd
take the family canoe out in the middle of the lake and turn her over
and spend hours swimming neath her and splashing around in the swamped
boat. We could all get the old 18' Grumman righted and half empty of
water even in deep water. It never failed the rangers would come out
to "rescue" us and we couldnt figure out why they wanted people to
swim in a "swimming area", whats wrong with the rest of the lake we
wondered.
However, the thing i remember I have never seen done anywhere alse was
what we called "Gunnelling" the canoe. One of us would stand on the
tiny sloping deck behind the stern and by bouncing up and dowm you
could propell it across the lake. This always drove the rangers
nuts. The best trick was to do this as we were approaching shore and
you would then jump off backwards propelling the very light canoe
right up to the landing.
I'd kill one of my kids if I saw em doing this.