I Am Phibious

Canoe/Kayak Racing/Orienteering Blog/Advocacy

Posts Tagged Phibious Racing

CKO is Canoe/Kayak Racing WITH Orienteering

Jan 12

Posted by phibious in Strategy | Comments off

CKO is canoe/kayak racing WITH orienteering - tell your friends!

Nuance Matters when Attracting Paddlers
It has been suggested that canoe/kayak orienteering (CKO) is the same as Foot Orienteering with the exception of an added boat for travel. We at Phibious would like to challenge that notion. We think of CK Orienteering more like a BOAT race that just so happens to have Orienteering!!

It is a subtle yet important difference that will drastically impact your race turnout. Canoe/Kayak Orienteering and Foot Orienteering seem to “at-a-glance” be similar. However, their cultures are very different. Just because you have the same essential mechanics does not make you alike. Are Baseball and Cricket alike? They both have bats, balls, and bases. Yet to ignore this difference is to alienate your potential participant and cause them to go elsewhere. That is no way to build a sport! And it is a certain recipe for poor race day turnout. Consider the following for a moment:

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Winning USCA Canoe/Kayak Orienteering

Jan 11

Posted by phibious in Strategy | 1 Comment

CKO is a timed race in which one- or two-person boats start at staggered intervals.

Winning Canoe Orienteering
A Seven-Time US Canoe-Orienteering Champion Reveals All
By Aims Coney, USCA Canoe-Orienteering Chair, 2008

What’s the first secret of successful canoe-o?  It’s pick your partner wisely.  Many thanks to Bob Allen, Barry Fifield, Ernst Linder, Andy Hall, and especially J-J Cote’ who endured so much, taught me so much, and ensured the success for which I later got credit.

Since 2001, championship-level canoe-o has gone through a miraculous evolution.  Back then J-J and I won the USCA Nationals by being the only team to bother portaging and dominated local meets by merely showing up with a racing canoe.  Nowadays the racers who enter the Nationals make far better decisions and local meets attract plenty of fast canoes.  It’s getting more competitive all the time, too.  At the 2001 Nationals there was a 2-1/2 hour margin between first and last places but last year the total gap, first to last, was only 38 minutes.  At local meets the long course often used to go unused, but now is often the most popular.

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CKO Race Guidelines

May 8

Posted by phibious in Race Design | Comments off

Canoe/Kayak Orienteering (CKO) borrows the best features of canoe racing and orienteering. Some events are canoe races with maps; others are orienteering meets with canoes. Meet organizers have considerable latitude to design events that are best for their venue and participants.

Canoe and Kayak Orienteering sanctioned meets should follow three rules in the interest of fairness and fun:

  1. The Team Finish Rule: Competitors start and finish with all crew members and equipment. One or all teammates may leave the boat during the event, but at the finish line the crew, boat, and all equipment must be back together again.
  2. The Designated Wet or Dry Rule: Control locations are designated “wet” or “dry” in the control descriptions or clearly on the map. A dry control is approached by land and is on firm ground while a wet control is punched from a boat. Dry controls are found on hilltops, at trail junctions, or other land features, but never in swamps. Overhanging branches, pilings, or buoys are good places to hang wet controls.

    Note to course setters: Some meets ban swimming or wading to controls but this is difficult to monitor. It is better to place wet controls so that swimming or wading will be a disadvantage over using a boat.

  3. The Nothing Yucky or Damaging Rule: It should never be necessary for a paddler to disembark into mud or unsavory water nor to run a boat up on rocks in order to punch a wet control. Additionally, punches on wet controls should be hung so they can be punched without rising from the center seat of an 18’6″ solo cruiser.

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The Mission of Phibious

May 6

Posted by phibious in Advocacy | Comments off

Phibious is dedicated to bringing competitive Canoe/Kayak Orienteering to the United States of America!

Race organizers in the US have from time-to-time produced CK Orienteering races. However, no organized effort has ever been attempted to bring CK Orienteering into the forefront of American orienteering competitions. Additionally, there are no American CKO teams represented in any World CK Orienteering Championship events, there is no active effort to form a competitive process for creating CKO teams for international competition, and even the US Orienteering Federation has yet to place any emphasis (or resources) on CK Orienteering within the US.

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