YOUCANOE is as much an approach to life as the outdoors. It’s about keeping it simple, going light with only limited but essential recourses, escaping the clutter and taking your time to enjoy the moment. YOUCANOE is to the outdoors and adventure what the Slow food movement is to dining.
It’s not about the biggest, fastest, wham bam, high volume, low quality vacuous experiences designed to plug a gap and occupy time.
Rather YOUCANOE advocates a shift toward slowing down life’s pace, savouring every glorious moment, enjoy the subtle richness and complexity that is there if you take the time to look for it.
It’s about doing something different, deviating from the normal and proscribed “essential this” and “100 most that” It’s about finding your own way, using your heart and imagination to know what it is that you need from your life’s adventures and having the knowledge and confidence to make up your own mind and fulfil your own dreams.
Through sharing tips, reviews and adventures YOUCANOE hopes to support and motivate you to enjoy the journey as much as the destination.
To achieve this, YOUCANOE focuses on 3 key elements:
- How-tos
- Kit reviews
- Adventures
How-tos
Through sharing hard-won lessons learned, skills, tips and techniques required for self reliance, bushcraft and outdoor adventure activities, we can pass on any knowledge that can be usefully applied to other adventures.
The purpose of the how-tos section is to provoke action so that positive lessons become embedded into our life and our systems. By improving the way we operate in the outdoors we can avoid any negative experiences in future and therefore have a safer and happier time in wild places. Remember, there is no point in having all the gear if you’ve got no idea what to do with it!
“Knowledge is the key to survival and the best thing about that is: it doesn’t weigh anything.”
– Ray Mears.
The outdoors can not be made safe, it’s our responsibility to learn and practice skills so we can act independently and decide our own fate.
YOUCANOE focuses on sharing skills, tips and techniques for self reliance, bushcraft and outdoor adventure activities such as:
|
OUTDOOR ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES |
BUSHCRAFT & SELF RELIANCE |
| Canoeing | Fire lighting in all conditions |
| Kayaking | Navigation |
| Dinghy Sailing | First aid |
| Climbing | Finding water |
| Ski Touring | Hunting and fishing |
| Mountaineering | Game prep |
| Mountain Biking | Preparation of hides |
| Cooking | |
| Knife and tool skills | |
| Identification and preparation of plants | |
| Medicine and hygiene | |
| Shelter building | |
| Tool making | |
| Knots and rope work | |
| First Aid and Swiftwater Rescue |
“love many, trust few, but always paddle your own canoe”
– Anonymous (1850’s)
Kit reviews
With ever increasing demands being placed on our time and money, you want to know that when you spend your hard-earned cash on kit, it’s going to do the job well, be a joy to use and not let you down.
YOUCANOE aims to share well balanced reviews on the essential tools, clothing and equipment required for life in the outdoors with a focus on the subjective (Emotional) and aesthetic aspects of design as much as the objective (Physical) aspects. For a designer or manufacturer to make better ‘objective’ design it involves engaging in an arms race, but if you engage emotionally with a well designed piece of kit its timeless.
While YOUCANOE is not restricted just to Canoeing the Canoe is a perfect example of the spirit of YOUCANOE, as the Canoe is a timeless vehicle to the outdoors that facilitates connection with nature, adventure and is environmentally responsible.
“What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.”
– Pierre Elliot Trudeau (1919-2000)
Adventures
Inspire and be inspired by stories of adventure, share the joy, confidence, respect for self and environment that comes from exploration and enjoy the spirit of adventure!