Canoeing

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Water hiking on the Mildenitz

Canoeing in a body of water is known as canoeing or hiking paddling or generally as water hiking .

General

Canoeing is mainly done on calm waters, which makes this canoeing sport particularly popular with families, nature enthusiasts and beginners. However, in addition to quiet paddling on inland lakes and small and large rivers, it does not exclude easy white water rafting. More than 90% of canoe tourism consists of canoeing. Sea cruises along coastlines are known as coastal canoeing and require more specialized equipment. You can also hike with small luggage while whitewater paddling .

Canoeing can be done with specially designed kayaks or canoes . Hiking boats come in different sizes that are suitable for one or more people. These boats are often designed to take luggage as well as the paddler. Longer journeys without an escort vehicle are referred to as luggage journeys or - analogous to trekking - as canoe trekking . Sometimes, however, vehicles with luggage (or e.g. caravans ) are brought up in stages for multi-day trips .

The navigable waters are described in detail in river guides . Here you can find information on danger spots (e.g. weirs) , locks , obstacles, water closures and nature reserves. In some flat places you have to pull a tow and in impassable places . Regulations must be observed when driving on the German federal waterways : The inland waterways regulations or sea waterways regulations or special regulations for the Rhine , Moselle , Danube or Hamburg ports . Electronic information about the waterways can be found under ELWIS .

"Canoeing is one of the most popular water tourism activities on German waters", states the basic study of water tourism in Germany (DTV, 2003). Between 1.2 and 1.4 million canoeists travel the 37,000 km of canoe-friendly waters each year.

equipment

If you don't own a boat, there are many places where you can rent canoes. In addition to the necessary equipment ( boat , paddle , possibly also life jacket and waterproof containers or clothing bags), these canoe rental companies usually also offer a transport service in which the canoeist is brought to the starting point or picked up from the destination. The boat rental company also provides information on the planned route.

Members of canoe clubs almost always have the opportunity to use club boats, although these boats are rarely loaned out to non-members.

overnight stay

Free camping is allowed in Germany and for one night in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein for canoeists (like all other non-motorized travelers). Exceptions are national parks and forest areas; permission must be obtained in advance for private property. In the other federal states, however, setting up tents in the wild is prohibited. Lighting an open fire is almost always prohibited . Therefore, one should find out about overnight accommodations in advance of a tour. Often you can camp at canoe clubs or spend the night in the boathouse . The DKV canoe stations , which have to meet certain criteria, are particularly suitable . You should always register in advance with all clubs, as many boathouses are only open from time to time.

Often there are also public campsites near the water. In addition, there are designated mooring options on many inland waters, designated as resting places for water hikers or bivouacs. There you can rest and spend a maximum of one night. Camping as a water hiker is also possible in many small harbors (after prior registration with the harbor master).

natural reserve

Diemitz lock

On all trips, nature conservation deserves special attention from canoeists. Many paddlers have a code of honor , which aims to be particularly considerate of nature. People who only want to navigate a body of water once (e.g. as part of a vacation with rental boats) are sometimes not quite as considerate - often due to insufficient boat control.

The protection of plants and animals and the observance of berthing bans in nature reserves should be observed by all canoeists. The principles of conduct also include all objects brought along and any waste of any kind, especially plastic packaging.

But outside of these there are also traffic regulations for nature conservation reasons that restrict paddling or prohibit paddling all year round. Here is paddling z. Sometimes only possible at certain times of the day or year, from a certain water level or only for a limited number of boats; In some cases there is also a ban on entering the bank in general or at certain forest fire warning levels. Whereas in 1980 only 40 traffic regulations were counted in Germany, in 1995 there were already 240, and in 2003 there were over 600 traffic regulations nationwide.

Hiker badge

When canoeing, members of the German Canoeing Association (DKV) have the option of paddling badges. This hiking driver badge is awarded for a number of kilometers traveled, which is determined differently according to the age and gender of the athletes. A prerequisite for some badges is participation in special courses in the area of ​​safety or environmental protection. In addition to this official DKV badge, there are badges of achievement for individual rivers that do not always require membership in an association.

organization

Many canoeists are organized in one of the 1,300 canoe clubs that are part of the German Canoe Association. The clubs usually have their own boathouses, in which boats can be stored, and organize trips together.

In addition to the trips made by the athlete on their own, there are organized hiking trips by clubs and associations. These trips are published in trip programs. The best known is the sports program of the German Canoe Association, which includes around 850 events nationwide.

Probably the largest organized hiking trip is the TID ( Tour International Danubien ), which leads on the Danube in 52 day stages from Ingolstadt to Silistra . The annual trip through six countries covers 2080 kilometers. Most of the participants take part in several daily stages; only a few manage - also because of the time required - the entire route within an event.

history

Water touring became popular with the invention of the folding boat in 1905 and its commercial manufacture by Klepper a few years later . Before that, a rowboat either had to be laboriously transported back by carriages or rowed back (against the direction of the river). The folding boat could, however, be taken disassembled on the train, an advantage that made water hiking a mass pleasure in Germany from 1920 onwards. The Deutsche Reichsbahn even used special trains for folding boat drivers who conquered the rivers and lakes in large droves at the weekend, and in the 1930s "folbot trains" brought paddlers from New York to good locations along the Hudson River. During this time the idea of ​​water hikes with the folding boat spread from Germany to the rest of Europe and to North America as well as Japan, but never achieved the same spread there as in Germany.

With the increasing motorization after the Second World War, the popularity of water hiking declined. In 1958, according to the Federal Association of the German Sportswear Industry, sales of folding boats were only 20 percent compared to the 1930s. In the early 1960s, folding boats were slowly being replaced by rigid, non-dismountable plastic kayaks that were transported by cars. During this time, increasing river construction with barrages for the growing commercial shipping and for the purpose of generating electricity, such as enormous pollution of the rivers, caused the popularity of water hiking in West Germany to decline further. In the GDR and Eastern Europe - due to limited travel options - water hikes (and mostly still with folding boats) enjoyed unchanged popularity until the political change in 1990.

With a broad introduction of a new understanding of nature, an ecological awareness and the associated greatly improved water quality of the rivers, as well as a general "outdoor trend", the numbers of water hikers increased again, especially in Germany. A visible sign of this is the sharp increase in the number of canoe rentals as well as the sales of folding boats from around the year 2000. Today, water hiking by canoe is as popular as it was in the 1930s (and the trend is growing).

Web links

Commons : Canoeing  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikibooks: Wikibook on the subject of kayak tours  - learning and teaching materials