As I mentioned in another story, I grew up canoeing on the Escatawpa River in south-west Alabama. I am not sure when it developed, but at some point Dad brought a tennis ball along on a trip. With this- and our family’s competitive nature- we developed a game that has enlivened many floats since that time.

The goal is to throw the tennis ball into someone else’s canoe. If it stays in, the “throwing canoe” gets a point. If someone in the defending canoe catches it, then they earn the point. Missed throws earn no points, but often cause a flurry of paddling to retrieve the ball. Throws are not allowed if you are within a paddle’s length of the other canoe, or if you are navigating a tricky section of river. A few years ago we made one rule change- a four-inch plastic disc became the second projectile in the game. A score with it counts three points. We usually play until we reach the take-out. The canoe with the highest score wins.

The game can be harder than it sounds. One reason is that most of us have not had experience throwing from a seated and moving position. In fact, my son and I were playing once on a trip with the Cahaba River Society, and someone asked if our goal was to get the other person wet by throwing the ball next to their canoe- “No, we just aren’t good at our objective.” Another factor which increases the difficulty of scoring is that your paddle works well at knocking down in-coming throws.

After playing this for so many years, we decided the game needed a name. In a less-than-humble moment, I decided to call it “Blackburn”.

One humorous game-related episode was on a Troop 96 Boy Scout trip on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. The competition was so intense that guys were jumping out of their canoes to get balls which landed in the water. There were no significant injuries, although I did hit a kid in the nose with the ball.

VB