I bumped into this video and found it entertaining. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXsXRcRgD6Q

I'd love to see Bell, Wenonah, Souris River, and others put their most durable laminates through similar tests.

There were several. Old Town tossed a prospector Royalex off a multi story building for advertising. I have seen several demos to display durability, a favorite was Ted Bell whacking a mash hammer on an Integra hull inviting Canoecopia attendees to give it several whacks.

butthead

The hammer tests are a dime a dozen. I've also seen a couple other videos showing canoes getting tossed off buildings. But, I'd never seen anything like the video I linked.

Fun video. I enjoyed watching them wrap the canoe around a rock in the river.

Nova Craft canoe testing

Bjelde: "I bumped into this video and found it entertaining. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXsXRcRgD6Q "

Please remember to use the Add a link to this message function located just below the white text box that you type in.

A Michigan canoer , now deceased, had his Royalex canoe blow off his rack on the Mackinaw bridge. The coast guard retrieved it the next day. The only damage was a broken center thwart. He was able to continue on for his Canadian trip.

I am going to have to watch some of these. I can handle scratches, but I’ve really wondered what sort of hits my boat could take before serious damage or shipping water. Skipped some rapids this summer I wanted to try because I did not know.

I think I recall one of the trips last year or the year before Dan Cooke took out to the southwest with a group and some new Northstar canoes. One of the canoes in the group got folded around a rock as they were running some serious rapids the whole trip. They continued to use it after adding some duct tape I believe and finished the whitewater trip.

I'm sure there are outfitters in the BWCA that have plenty of stories or pictures of what their rental fleets have been through.

I'd love to have a basalt/innegra canoe (Nova Craft TuffStuff, Northstar IPX), but I'm not at all interested in portaging that much weight. Yeah, I know guys used to portage much heavier canoes because that's all they had, but I'm not them and no thank-you.

Extreme canoe abuse

sedges: "Extreme canoe abuse "

I'm with the commenters who think that was an utterly wasteful and pointless attempt at appealing to The Algorithm.

sedges: "Extreme canoe abuse "

I found this one a bit more satisfying: Repairing an old cedar strip canoe

Back in 1976 when I guided out of Gunflint Lodge - Old Town gave us a few of their new Royalex canoes and told us to have fun trying to destroy them. And boy...did we have fun! Could not quite manage to destroy them though!

Minnesotian: "Fun video. I enjoyed watching them wrap the canoe around a rock in the river.

Nova Craft canoe testing "

OMG!!! Ouch...

mschi772: "I'd love to have a basalt/innegra canoe (Nova Craft TuffStuff, Northstar IPX), but I'm not at all interested in portaging that much weight. Yeah, I know guys used to portage much heavier canoes because that's all they had, but I'm not them and no thank-you."

I totally agree, if you're only doing flatwater canoeing. But, I've seen the wear on lighter weight canoes when bounced off rocks and dragged through shallows. Many of the river trips in Ontario involve long stretches of flatwater paddling, mixed with rapids and portages. There are composite canoes out there that give you reasonable paddling efficiency and excellent durability at a moderate weight (60-65#). I'd like to see Northstar make the Northwind 17 with their IXP laminate. That would be perfect for a mixed river/flatwater trip.

mschi772: "

sedges: "Extreme canoe abuse "

I'm with the commenters who think that was an utterly wasteful and pointless attempt at appealing to The Algorithm."

Yep.... a youtuber wanna be that failed. Terrible music for the video, too. But we gave him a few more views.

Bjelde: "

mschi772: "I'd love to have a basalt/innegra canoe (Nova Craft TuffStuff, Northstar IPX), but I'm not at all interested in portaging that much weight. Yeah, I know guys used to portage much heavier canoes because that's all they had, but I'm not them and no thank-you."

I totally agree, if you're only doing flatwater canoeing. But, I've seen the wear on lighter weight canoes when bounced off rocks and dragged through shallows. Many of the river trips in Ontario involve long stretches of flatwater paddling, mixed with rapids and portages. There are composite canoes out there that give you reasonable paddling efficiency and excellent durability at a moderate weight (60-65#). I'd like to see Northstar make the Northwind 17 with their IXP laminate. That would be perfect for a mixed river/flatwater trip."

As much as overkill durability would be great to have, I'm satisfied enough with blacklite for mixed trips as it is quite strong. I am pretty sure I'll be ordering a new blacklite B17 sometime next year. I have a 55-60ish lb Nova Craft right now, and I'm just not happy carrying that on longer portages and almost never single carry with it. You call it moderate, but I considerate borderline heavy.