My first introduction to a canoe as a disabled person was a V6 Hawaiian Outrigger. Hawaiian canoes are pretty useful for adaptive paddlers because of the shape and stability. I progressed from 6 man outriggers to Canadian canoes.
In 2008 I had my first experience of paddling a V1. The V1 (one man Va'a) is now the canoe which has been accepted as the Paralympic discipline for adaptive canoeing in the 2016 Paralympics. At the moment the race is looking like it will be a 200M sprint event.
The drawback with many types of adaptive canoeing is fitting a support seat and getting the canoe fitted for optimum performance. Here's a picture of me (blue top) paddling a Tiger Tevanui V1. I'm sitting in an Aquaback support seat and have an elasticated waist band which stops me from falling forward. In the event of capsize the waist band is velcro fastened, so I can remove it quickly to exit the canoe.
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