Here is a link to someone that uses the boat a lot.

https://youtu.be/yjuj3iqSpDc

Well, they sure do make some pretty boats. I watched another video, the guy was at the "Toronto boat show", they showed a canoe/kayak with Canada's flag built/embedded on the bottom, that was a pretty boat.

Brian, let me ask, have you or any of your buds ever actually had one of these Kevlar boats on the water? After looking the boat over, that style of seat looks uncomfortable to me. That would be like sitting on the floor, with not much back support. After an hour or two, that would be tiresome.

Years ago a bunch of us went down the creek, camped overnight and came out the next evening. I remember we had a 13-foot Coleman canoe, 1 or 2, 15-foot canoes, and 17 footer, plus a 12 foot flat bottom. We were loaded down pretty heavy with gear and stuff, but that 13' Coleman was always at the back of the pack. It rode deeper in the water than anything else, and out in still or slack water, you had to work to keep it moving.

I have a 15' Coleman and a 17' Coleman canoe, both have been well worth the money. My opinion, I like the 17-footer best, depending on the stream and conditions. The 17-footer is easier to paddle in still/slow moving water.

Did you notice the guy in the video, demonstrated how he paddled? With a boat 13'6", and a paddle that long, the tip of his canoe would zig-zag with every stroke.

I hardly ever paddle left-handed, (in still water), with my 17-foot canoe, I can make 3 or 4 good strokes with the paddle, and coast 10 or 15 yards.

I never sat in a Swift nor has anyone i know. But I have watched lots of videos and they track quite well. They only reason I don't have one is because they do not ship. The one I want will cost several pretty pennies and I do not want to shell out much more for shipping.

But it would weigh about 30 pounds!

I love Colemans. I have 3 15 footers. One is scrap due to the plastic being too scraped and punctured. I bought the welding kit but it never was 100% and I do not want to be in a situation far in the bush with a problem. I stripped it down to customize a second. I am not a fan of the ones with the cooler as a middle seat. I preferred the old orange/center bar ones. I can portage those ones on my own. You cannot get the middle seat ones on your shoulders without help. So I removed the middle seat on a new one, added the old center bar, removed the floatation foams from the nose/tail of the old one and added it to the new one. It might weigh another 10 pounds but I portaged it twice yesterday and it still felt good. One of these years it won't!

Yep, they can be pigs in the water but they are tough. stable and carry a load. You can bend them in 2 and they will regain their shape. I have seen it a few times.

I live on a river and we did a little white water yesterday in 2 Colemans. Wifey and her brother flipped once and bro-in-law went for another swim getting out at the end of the run.

We went canoe camping a couple of week ends ago. One Coleman with a 2 h.p. hooked on the side, a Radisoon transom with a 2 h.p. and my Esquif Cargo with a 2.6. The Esquif can tote a 1000 pounds. Great boat We had a great time camping on a sandbar in the middle of a river.

The zigzagging of a canoe is often the fault of a paddler. I can keep a Coleman straight as a pin. I always stroke on the same side.

I've never watched any videos of the Swift boat on the water. I'd never heard of a Swift boat till you posted the link. I take it that it's a fairly new company?

That's odd that they don't have dealers or wholesalers here and there. Years ago I sold Coleman boats and canoes here at the store. I bought them wholesale from a place in PA, about a 4 hour drive from here. I bought them unassembled, just the hull with the top rail, and a box of parts. The floatation, seats, and all. Don't remember, we could stick a canoe together in less than a half hour. As well as I remember, I sold the 15' canoes for $285, 17's were $315. That was a while back! I do remember for sure, I pissed off the guy down at the sport shop on the other end of town. He had to drop his prices!

I'd like to see one of these Swift boats in person. I'll tell you, you just never see an aluminum canoe on our streams anymore. If the material that the Swift boats are made from won't give and flex like a Coleman or Old Town will, they won't hold up long on our rivers.

A Swift isn't made for hitting rocks. It is made from graphite. It is a touring boat for canoe camping with lots of portages. The boat is light enough so you can single portage as opposed to going back and forth making several trips.

They are also known to give excellent back support.

They have 3 dealers in Ontario and one in western Canada.

When I contacted one of the dealers, in Ottawa, an employee told me that they were actually going to buy a different brand of canoe from another company about 2 hours away from me. I then spoke to the boss and asked if he would bring a Swift down for me. No way. They don't do that.

That peeved me off. So I didn't order.

They did say they would package it for me if I could organize shipping.

Well, that was probably for the best.

I found a link, seems they are having some big sale, I think this coming weekend? Don't remember where, but they were used and/or demo boats. After looking at the retail prices and even the sale prices, that's still a lot of money for a boat! At those prices, if they don't want to, or refuse to offer service to their customers, I wouldn't deal with them either.

This work computer won't let me copy/paste. ?

I also looked at their list of dealers, seems like there is one in Ohio. A few up around New York. If the Swift boats won't handle rocks, they'd be pretty much worthless on our streams.

If you look at those 2 pictures above, they were taken about 150 yards apart, of course looking upstream and then downstream. The water looks calm, but I'll pretty much guarantee you that, 2 guys in a 17-foot canoe, you will touch a rock(s) going through that section of creek. If the water would be up another foot higher, you're going to get water in your face. It's a good ride. Fun ride.

Above where I said that you almost never see an aluminum canoe on the river here anymore, most of them have been trashed. Torn, ripped and crushed on rocks. Years ago, Dad, my brother and I were out swimming, and I found an aluminum canoe. It was trash, crumpled up under a log in the river. We did recover the carcass. According to the "debris field", we found about everything that they had on board too. From their poles, right on down to a stringer of fish. Pretty sure my brother still has one end of that canoe, about 4 or 5 feet of it.

"Well, that was probably for the best."

Maybe, but I think there is a Swift pak boat in my future.

My son has an aluminum Radison. Good canoe. They are quite popular around here.

Coleman story: when my wife and I got engaged I obviously bought her an engagement ring. She wanted to buy me a marriage ring. I don't wear rings. So I asked for a Coleman canoe instead and she bought me one. I had it for about 20 years before the plastic wore though. The relationship is still going well after over 37 years together.

In lieu of a wedding ring, I got a ring tattoo on the band finger for 20 bucks. Wifey was quite happy.

We did the same river run today. 2 Colemans and no one went swimming this time.

Well, as long as nobody is hurt, you don't lose anything valuable, or crush the boat on a rock, there's nothing wrong with sinking a canoe. I've been known to flip a canoe on purpose from time to time. Get all hot and sticky paddling, there's no better way to cool off!

While I'm thinking about it, you'd be surprised how many folks go for a float down the river without a "dry bag". A bag or container where you can keep all of your valuables safe. Years ago I bought a waterproof canvas bag to keep my stuff dry.

A while back I bought some junk off of a man, he had a "dry bag" can-like thing, about the size of a gallon jar, with a screw on lid. It's got straps and all, I've never used it.

A few years ago, I found a girl's billfold, driver's license, and all of her paperwork, well as I remember it had 60 or 80 bucks cash inside. It took me a while to run her down, but she got it all back! And she was very happy!

About 2 weeks ago I found a high-dollar cell phone on the bottom of the creek. It's probably trash, but I haven't had it checked yet. Sometimes they are trash, sometimes they can be rebuilt. We shall see.

But I'll bet whoever lost the phone, wishes that they'd have had a $25 dry bag.

Another canoe story.

Last year my son and 3 of his buds wanted to do a little white water. My son has a little experience and the others had none.

They had me drive them upriver from home where I let them off. The plan was for them to spend one day paddling, one night in the bush and arrive in the yard the day after.

I wasn't keen on the idea but the kid was 24 and what do I know. I lent them a Coleman, a kayak and the other bud had a kayak.

After we had unloaded the truck and they were getting ready to leave I noticed a couple of things. The first was that none of their stuff was tied down. The second was that there wasn't a bail bucket to be seen. A quick father/son conversation ended up with things being tied and mess kit cups becoming bailers.

Two days later they arrived home in a mess. My son had his underwear on his head and he was severely flybitten. His buds were sun burned and scraped. All were famished.They all had a story.

It seems that less than a half hour after starting they unwittingly went over a 5 foot waterfall. They lost most of the food, some gear, my son lost his hat (which explained the underwear) the fly dope, sunscreen, the bailers and other stuff. They did recoup my sons brand new tent I had gotten him as a grad present. The Coleman got wedged in the falls by the water pressure and they thought they were going to have to leave it there. Eventually it popped out on its own.

The boat is fine.

As they continued, One guy found an apple floating in the river which he ate. He later found out that no one had brought apples!

They had 4 straight hours of rapids to navigate.

Thye could not find a good spot to camp on shore as the banks were too steep. They camped on the river rocks, in a wet tent, in wet sleeping bags. There was no good dry wood around so the fire was a smoker and not a heater. The temperature dropped to freezing (not unusual in June) and they had to spoon to keep warm.

The bugs and sun slayed them during both days.

They had a blast.

This year I drove them higher in the same river. Still 4 guys but one newbie. They all had kayaks. They also have much more experience.

One guy arrived at the house early. He had gotten badly sun burned. My wife asked him if he had sun screen. He didn't but he was certain someone else would. She asked if he had fly dope. He didn't but he was certain someone else did. She stopped asking questions.

My son arrived with the other guys and the only thing he borrowed was my Spot locator beacon.

Driving them higher meant that we had to pay a road access of $5.00. Between 4 young men, who all have good jobs, they could not scrape together 5 bucks cash! They expected to pay with their debit cards. So I paid.

After unloading the truck and trailer, they realized that one guy had forgotten their paddle! Three guys stayed behind to portage the stuff to the river while my son and I returned to the park entrance to phone my wife so she could bring a spare paddle.

At the guardians camp we needed 5 bucks for the phone call....

While waiting for Wifey/Mom to arrive with the paddle, son decides to move the truck and trailer. He backed into the guardians parked car. It was a brand new SUV.

They finally got going by late afternoon.

One of the guys was a slow learner. My son had checked out the first rapids on foot. He opted to portage. The slow learner didn't want to do the leg work so he just shot the rapids. He made it to the first curve where he wiped out. His kayak did the water roll, he lost the kayak skirt while swimming for his life, and the gear got soaked.

The video is quite entertaining.

The rest of the trip was much better except for the skirtless guy having to bail all the time. He slept wet for the second time. Good fire wood was available so they had a great fire where the wet guy set fire to/melted one of his shoes.

I hope not, but I bet they are going back next year.

Geez dude! Send that whole script to Hollywood. You'll get rich and famous, and we'll all be able to see the whole story on the big screen!! What a fantastic read. I know I've done some dumb things in my youth. Glad I'm past them years. Now I just do old dumb stuff! Thanks for sharing.

Frank.