My 9 year old son practicing for his first multi-day solo canoe trip this summer. The daily distances will be shorter and no large water crossings. It’s been a good learning experience for both of us and has been a slow learning curve for him, but he is already showing a substantial improvement and overall understanding when he is a bow paddler in the tandem.

I was wondering !
You aren't sending him alone, right ? Ha !
He's just learning to paddle a Solo canoe !

OK ! That is cool ! I wish there was a canoe around to paddle when I was 9 !

Jim

That's great, a real learning experience I'm sure. And more lessons to come. He's a lucky kid.

One thing to keep in mind is that an inexperienced solo paddler can be a liability, and the more experienced paddler really has to be on his/her game--with a kid even more so. Conditions can change quickly (e.g. a gust of wind, catch a paddle), and solo canoes are a bit more squirrely than tandems, so if they go over, you need to be able to respond quickly and effectively. Paddling tandem, you can recover from a mistake with a brace, etc. and they are a lot more stable, especially loaded. I've paddled with inexperienced friends and have had to do open water canoe-over-canoe rescues when they got away from me.

Stay close, stay alert, and stay prepared.