Imagine Portaging with Those Things

The University of Missouri concrete canoe team is going to regionals.

Concrete canoes stay afloat just as steel barges do, by displacing more than their weight in water. To further lighten their craft, teams make concrete using powder-like glass particles instead of rock or gravel. This year, the team set the boat’s thickness at one half inch. “People think Styrofoam is the only thing that floats,” said project manager Tim Riechers as he got set for a weekend of presentations and races in Lincoln, Neb.

Who knew? This sport seems to rival golf in terms of being designed to frustrate, but each to his or her own. Here are some photos from the University of Michigan team (cross-country rivals, perhaps?) building their canoe and an article from the magazine for canoe afficianados, Paddler.