The competition is 60% academic and 40% athletic. The academic portion requires the students to effectively communicate the research, design, construction, and management of their canoe through written, oral, and visual means. The written communication is a 10 page technical document that must adhere to a specific format covering the items above. The oral communication is a 5 minute oral presentation to a panel of judges followed by a question and answer period. The visual communication consists of a display which must creatively show through pictures,charts, graphs, and anything involved in the construction of the canoe.

The athletic portion of the competition consists of paddling races: a male sprint, a female sprint, a coed sprint, a male distance, and a female distance. The sprint races are 200 meters (100 meters out, a 180 degree turn, and 100 meters back) and the distance races are 600 meters (3 200 meters legs in a triangular shape). The 1997 competition has added 7 slalom bouys to the distance race to make maneuvering a challenge.