Yes, paddling.  And if you're doing a Google search for information on corporal punishment, you're in the wrong place.  "Paddling" is a slightly more concise name for the sport of canoeing and kayaking, whose participants all hold paddles in their hands.
     A kayaker sits in his boat and uses a paddle with two blades, stroking on the left side of his boat, then the right side, then the left, then the right, and so on.  Most kayakers paddle decked boats that they sit inside, wearing a spray skirt that keeps water out of their cockpits.  A few kayaks are "sit-on-top" models--the hull is completely sealed, and the paddler sits in a molded seat on the deck.
     Many canoes look just like the ones you paddled at summer camp.  Many do not.  The one common thread among canoeists is that they all use single-blade paddles; beyond that there are many varieties.  Some canoeists paddle "open" canoes, with which most non-paddlers are familiar, while other canoeists have boats with decks that make them look like kayaks.  Some canoeists kneel in their boats, while others sit.  Some canoeists switch between paddling on the right side of the boat and paddling on the left; others keep the same hand on the T-grip and the same hand on the shaft at all times.
     Kayakers and canoeists paddle many different kinds of water.  Classifying all the different types of paddling is rather difficult.  It's a lot like distinguishing among the different styles of blues music: Albert King is very different from Junior Kimbrough, Ray Charles is very different from Pinetop Perkins, and Di Anne Price is very different from Jessie Mae Hemphill; but all these people are considered blues musicians.  So it is with all the various paddling disciplines, and here I shall do my best to describe all the paddling activities I am aware of.
 

River Canoeing
     "River canoeing" is the result of that age-old urge to put a boat in the water and head down the river.  Few people in our society have not at some point grabbed a canoe and some friends and a picnic lunch and maybe (if they were over 21) a cooler of beer, and floated down a river.
     My first paddling experience was a river canoeing outing with my family.  For several summers when I was little, we paddled, swam, and soaked up the sun on the Spring River in northern Arkansas, several hours from our home in Memphis.
     Some athletic types compete in marathon canoeing, which involves racing on courses that run up and down rivers for fairly long distances (in some cases, extremely long distances).

Whitewater paddling
     Whitewater paddling is the result of river canoeists venturing onto steeper, faster, more turbulent rivers.  Canoe and kayak designs have evolved that hardly resemble the river craft of yesteryear, and rivers that once were considered unrunnable are now run regularly by aggressive boaters.  Paddlers on the cutting edge of the sport are running steep creeks on which one wrong move could mean serious injury or death; but in general whitewater paddling is a safe activity for anyone who has developed a modicum of skill and experience.
     A number of competitive disciplines take place on whitewater.  The simplest is wildwater, in which paddlers race down a section of whitewater river as fast as they can.  "Extreme racing" is wildwater on very steep, difficult rivers.  Whitewater slalom, an Olympic event, challenges participants to maneuver their boats through a series of gates suspended above a section of river.
     Whitewater rodeo is a competition in which paddlers surf a big hole in the river and do as many acrobatic tricks in a set amount of time as possible to earn points from a panel of judges.  In recent years this sport has billed itself as "freestyle" because it is the paddling equivalent of freestyle skiing.  I have decided to call it "rodeo" here, however, because there is another paddling discipline, described below, that was already known as "freestyle."

Touring
     Most people would consider river canoeing to be a form of "touring," but here I will separately define "touring" as paddling that takes place on lakes, coastal waters, very large rivers such as the Mississippi, and other open bodies of water like the Great Lakes and the Everglades.
     The canoes used for river canoeing can be used for open-water touring as well, but higher-performance craft such as touring kayaks (sea kayaks) and outrigger canoes are ideal because they are less vulnerable to swamping out.  A racing culture has developed around open-water paddling, for which the boats of choice are surf skis and long, narrow kayaks and outriggers.  These races are similar to marathon races in distance and technique, but offer added challenges that are unique to open water, such as large swells and stiff winds.
     I live right on the Mississippi River, so a large percentage of my paddling these days is of the open-water variety.  I keep my surf ski at one of the marinas down in Memphis Harbor and incorporate paddling into my daily routine.

Flatwater paddling
    As far as skills and technique go, paddling on flatwater is about the same as paddling on open water, but I make a distinction here because there are a couple of paddling disciplines that seek to avoid the big waves and volatile weather conditions of open water.
     Flatwater sprint canoeing and kayaking is the other paddling discipline on the Olympic program.  Its format is similar to swimming: competitors line up in lanes and race straight ahead to the finish line.  The distances are short--200 meters, 500 meters, and 1000 meters--but the precise stroke technique of sprint athletes makes them very competitive in the longer distances of marathon and open-water racing, should they choose to enter.  Because sprint races normally are held in the relative tranquility of a small lake, the boats are as narrow as possible for maximum speed.  This narrowness makes them incredibly tippy, and they are very difficult to paddle on open water except on the calmest days.
     Freestyle canoeing is the paddling equivalent of synchronized swimming.  A freestyle canoeist performs a graceful ballet of precise paddle strokes while balancing precariously in the bottom or on the gunwales of the canoe; the routine is set to recorded music, and a panel of judges evaluates the performance.  Though not a "fast-action" sport like slalom or rodeo, freestyle requires a high degree of muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility.