Building a wooden canoe with Herman
"In my wooden canoe I am one with nature" As an experienced paddler, Herman Pardon built an exclusive Abenaki river canoe at Freeranger Canoe. "For years I have searched for a solid, authentic wooden canoe. Until I found Bart's shop. " "I got to know Freeranger Canoe at the Open Canoe Festival in Ossenzijl (NL)," [...]
Interview with Canoe Builder Bart Deseyn
How a passion became a life style We've had the honor to be featured on the artisans blog Labois. Enjoy the read! Wood is a surprising material, from which we often forget that it also floats. In the postindustrial era, where iron, plastic and fiberglass seem to have conquered all the waters -and markets-, a [...]
Canoeing with children
Canoeing with children If you enjoy the outdoors you probably had your first experiences with adventurous activities as a child. The love for outdoor sports is a great gift to pass on to your own children. Many parents go into the woods and mountains with their offspring, but canoeing with children is also great fun [...]
Learning to canoe
Learning to canoe pays off There is no such thing as a tippy canoe .... only tippy paddlers. Nobody ever says that a bike is unstable while a canoe is 20 times wider and it would be? OK, a bicycle enjoys the gyroscopic effect of the wheels, but that is a detail. Canoeing is just [...]
Buying a canoe
Buying a canoe, what is the best choice? Earlier we wrote a post about the design of the canoe and what to look for when choosing a canoe. However, there is more to it when buying a canoe. In this post we want to give you an overview of the materials canoes are made of [...]
Building a plywood canoe
Building a plywood canoe is child's play And so it came about that two little girls, Hanne & Leen, showed up at our shop one fine day and told us they wanted to build a plywood canoe. They gathered that building a plywood canoe was the ideal method for novice builders such as them. And [...]
Environmentally friendly wooden oars
Traditional wooden oars for Austria In recent weeks we have been busy making two traditional wooden oars for an Austrian customer. They are made from wind-dried European ash wood. This, in contrast to oven-dried wood, retains its natural flexibility. Flex is very important for wooden oars but also for canoe paddles. It gives a second [...]
Canoeing on the Meuse
Canoeing on the Meuse Canoeing on the Meuse? Does not sound fascinating, and yet. In the northern French département de la Meuse, the river is not yet the channeled river that it becomes from the Belgian city of Namur. On the contrary, it is a particularly beautiful and natural water course that flows through a [...]