Raid Ukatak
Ice Canoeing - An Original Extreme Sport
Eric Fraser / 19.01.2003
Ukatak introduced the traditional Quebec sport of ice canoeing to a wider sporting world and though it\'s not included in this year\'s race local racer Eric Fraser has sent over some more information on this unique extreme sport. Here\'s his inside view of the joys of canoeing on solid water:What was once a job has evolved into a sport where winter crazed fanatics wearing only ultramarathon suits, toques, leather mitts and 1 inch long ice crampons cross the icy waters for the sheer fun of speeding along on a danger zone.
This morning, minus 35 degrees Celsius, the fog (or as the coast guard calls it ‘Sea Fog’) brought down visibility down to about 45 metres. We set out in our specially crafted canoe across a 1.3 km channel of the St-Laurence river. The 18 foot long, 140kg canoe is specially made of carbon fibre and Kevlar. There are no manufacturers of canoes in this sport, only a few boat builders know how to make them and worldwide, there are only about 250 racers. In my team, we have designed the hull shape with 3D software to handle the water and ice sections as effortlessly as possible.
The job of ice canoeing used to be to taxi people and goods, but is now a of crossing the same river, except without passengers or cargo and at much higher speeds. It is a sport where rowing and running come together. When the boat is docking on ice the racers quickly store the oars and push-pull-grunt the boat on the ice. On good ice speeds up to 28 km per hour have been recorded. On water, 12 to 16 km is expected as a minimum.
When on water, the skipper runs the show; he calls out to the other team members the traffic and the ice conditions ahead, steering away from ice floes and other racers. On ice, the front man takes over the steering, he plans the path to take and calls for the rest of the team to steer all the while running along. At high speeds, the racers place one leg inside the canoe and propel using the outside leg: this is called skittering (or trottinete, in French). Skittering allows for a very long pulse of energy to be applied to the ice and propel the boat. Strides well over 3.2 metres are possible when the motion is done right, this is the only way to ensure speeds over 12 km per hour for long periods of time. The team mates must synchronize this move perfectly all the while steering the boat through a maze of ice shards.
The ice shards in January and February are well over 3 feet tall. These interlocked chards of ice litter the river surface and create an unbelievable alien landscape that the ice canoe racers must navigate through. Plates of shards can range in size from 1 square metre to 1 square kilometre, depths from 20 cm to 2 metres. Note that in Quebec city (where this sport is practiced) the tide is 4.5 metres, this can create stranded icebergs up to 6 metres in height. There have been some outings where racers could walk below the canoe resting on ice peaks above. See All Event Posts
