Few things say “Canada” more than the sight of a canoe making its way along the St. Lawrence River during the summer. But would anyone dare go for a winter paddle?

A team of diehard canoeists in Montreal are braving near-freezing waters, jagged chucks of ice, and often dangerously cold temperatures to pursue the extreme sport of ice canoeing.

“It’s fun. It’s like a thrill,” said canoeist Mylène Paquette, who is no stranger to extraordinary feats on the water.

Three years ago, the rower became the first North American to complete a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

Invented in Quebec, the gruelling sport requires a group of athletes to push a large canoe over open ice using their legs. Once the canoe hits open water, the team uses long oars instead of traditional paddles to propel the vessel forward.

“When I was rowing in the middle of the ocean with big, big waves around me it’s kind of the same thrill as when I’m pushing on the ice with my foot and then I see the ice breaking,” Paquette told CTV’s Vanessa Lee.

Despite having to deal with ice pellets and temperatures as low as -20 C, the athletes say they aren’t concerned about the cold.

“My biggest worry was to be cold, but I’m never cold because you move so much,” ice canoeist Constance Deslauriers said. “You have to push and pull all of that, so you’re never cold.”

Even the water in the St. Lawrence sits at just above 0 C, making it much warmer than the air.

While athletes like Paquette and Deslauriers have turned ice canoeing into a winter pastime, people have been battling the region’s icy water for centuries as a matter of survival. During the 1800s, canoes were used to transport mail, supplies and sick patients between the Quebec’s islands and the mainland.

Nowadays, the activity is turning into a highly competitive sport, with teams from as far away as France coming to compete in at Quebec City’s winter carnival and a 13 to 17 kilometre race in Montreal.

“It’s so much fun and it’s such an adrenaline rush,” Deslauriers said.

With files from CTV’s Vanessa Lee in Montreal