Some important tips to keep in mind as you head out on the water

What are some of your tips for staying safe out there?

Here a some basic safety tips. Youtube offers many more tips on safely getting into and out of a canoe, learning different strokes, improving stroke efficiency, packing and trimming a canoe, and more.

1. Wear your PFD.
   
2. Padddle on opposite sides in a tandem canoe. Unless you really know what you are doing, having both stern and bow paddlers paddle on the same side could lead to a capsize.
   
3. Steer the canoe from the stern by ruddering the blade, ideally using a J-stroke. In flat water, the bow does not usually help steer the canoe. Here's a quick video:
   You Tube

   You Tube

4. Change sides by announcing or requesting a switch in advance so both paddlers change sides at the same time.
   
5. Paddle near shore if possible. There's more to see, there is less wind and waves and it's safer because if you do dump, you can swim to shore.
   
6. Plan to be off the water before noonish when the winds often pick up.
   
7. Wear your PFD.

This tragedy likely resulted from inexperience (a six year old on a river), lack of key skills (at least one person from this group had dumped before) and cold water (3-4 deg C).

'Absolutely tragic': 2 dads, 2 sons die on northern Manitoba canoe trip:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manito...toba-1.4127497