Paddling Their Own Concrete Canoe

By Jere Hough Meteorologist / Feature Reporter

Published: Wed, April 25, 2007 - 6:04 am Last Updated: Wed, August 01, 2007 - 1:20 am

Jere Hough

(INTRO) THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA MAY OR MAY NOT EVER GET A FOOTBALL TEAM, BUT IT DOES HAVE A CONCRETE CANOE TEAM, AND THEY DID PRETTY WELL AT THEIR REGIONAL TOURNAMENT RECENTLY. METEOROLOGIST JERE HOUGH FOUND THEM PADDLING AROUND...JUST DOWN COUNTY ROAD 5.

No athletic scholarships here among the four USA students paddling together...in fact these students are known more for their brains than their brawn. They're Civil Engineering majors, and they just got back from Knoxville and a competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Matt Alford is the groups president. "We did great. We got fifth overall. That's out of twenty-six schools that attended the conference."

They don't just have to paddle their own canoe...they have to build it...by hand.

They construct a wooden frame, and over it pour three thin layers of concrete, separated by a reinforcing mesh. Remarkably, the concrete layers total up to a thickness of only half an inch!

Alford explains, "This canoe is again twenty feet long, thirty inches wide, it can hold two thousand pounds, and it only weighs about two hundred fifty...You want concrete that if you were to make it into a block, it would float...it's lighter than water."

Even forcibly submerged...the canoe will rise to the surface.

Alford estimates this year's canoe has four to five thousand dollars worth of donated material....plus a lot of donated student time...but, all in all, a great learning adventure.

"Lots of value...tons of fun," he declares.

Jere Hough sits in the canoe with a life jacket, "On County Road 5 on Halls Mill Creek near Dog River, I'm Jere Hough, News 5."

(TAG) WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM NASA (THE U.S. SPACE AGENCY), THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA - HUNTSVILLE CREATED A FOUR-PERSON CONCRETE CANOE THAT WEIGHED ONLY 100 POUNDS! THEY DIDN'T WIN.