Somebody nearby me posted an add selling an old plastic slalomish C1 called Hydra. Since I couldn't find much info on the net about this boat I was wondering if anybody could help around here...
Any info, specs, comments or review of any types would be appreciated!
From a picture I would guess the thing looks roughly 12 feet, almost no rocker and pretty round chines.
I am not in need for a boat but still, it looks cheap and maybe fun to throw around a local slalom run we have... My garage can still take one more I think...
I use to own a Hydra Centaur. It was early in my C1 days so my abilities were not all that great. It felt like it had a much larger volume than a Gyramax and I found the Gyramax to be more responsive and easier to roll. The Gyramax did snappier eddy turns. However, the Centaur wasn't that bad a roller, it was just the Gyramax was easier. The Centaur did handle big water well, being able to crash thru holes that would stop a lesser boat. I went down the New River gorge at medium levels without hardly any skills and only swam once.
Berkshire Jack wrote:I use to own a Hydra Centaur. It was early in my C1 days so my abilities were not all that great. It felt like it had a much larger volume than a Gyramax and I found the Gyramax to be more responsive and easier to roll. The Gyramax did snappier eddy turns. However, the Centaur wasn't that bad a roller, it was just the Gyramax was easier. The Centaur did handle big water well, being able to crash thru holes that would stop a lesser boat. I went down the New River gorge at medium levels without hardly any skills and only swam once.
I never thought that the Gyrmax would ever be mentioned in conjunction with snappy (er) eddy turns... ...
TGG!
Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing - Henry David Thoreau
Actually, a Gyramax really will make a snappy eddy turn (relatively speaking, of course- it's a long boat) It does have a slalom-based hull design, and so weight shifts and leans are all-important, as with any hull of that sort. I still paddle my '84 Gyramax, and I find that by throwing my weight toward the stern, and using a duffek syle draw when entering the eddy, I can bring it around plenty fast. Also, you learn that the old stern turn, where you lean the hull slightly downstream as you begin the eddy turn, along with the weight shift to the rear, will slightly sink the stern, which pulls the bow up, making for no water resistance on the front third of the hull. It's just a different style of paddling, which has gone out of favor now that we have the ultra short logs that most folks prefer nowadays. I still like it. There's still some fun to be had paddling those old long boats, and they are SO much faster! Even in scarred up old plastic!
By the way, Marclamenace, the old Centaur was a decent boat for just going down the river, especially for those new to the C-1 experience, but in comparison to the Gyramax, there really is no comparison. The Hydra boat had no character- it was as round everywhere as a boat could be. No edge anywhere, round bottom. Probably somewhat easier to roll, by virtue of having no edge at all, but the old Gyramax was not a bad boat to roll either. The Hydra was notorious for being very sticky in big side-surf holes, too. It was a well made boat, though- quite tough, if heavy. I still have an old Hydra Duet C-2, and it's fun to take it down the Ocoee with a rank novice in the bow. I have done it many times, most times successfully! LOL. If we flip, I let the novice abandon ship and then roll up and try to assist them. The quality of the polyethelene in those old hulls was as good as anything they have now, and they would last just about forever as long as they were stored inside, out of the UV rays.
I don't really think of a Gyramax as being edgy... at all...
Could one theoretically roll a full C-2 with the bowman just tucking as far to the deck as possible and laying the paddle flat, like one person can roll a tandem kayak?
Jrsh- any "edge" that the Gyramax has is of course very conservative compared to the low volume squirt type C-1's, and the full-on slalom hulls, but it does in fact have enough to use, especially for heavier paddlers. I'll put it this way- when I bought that old Gyramax (which I still have and paddle) back in '84, it was different enough from my old Phoenix Seewun as far as edge and general hull shape that I had to immediatly learn a new paddling style, or else. Davey Hearn was the main designer on the Gyramax, and they (He and the Perception design team) basically used the old Supermax series for a starting platform and then added volume, and lessened the edge to make a recreational boat that most intermediates could handle. But with that being said, I maintain that even by today's standards, the Gyramax has enough edge to make a difference, and those who do not know how to handle that properly, along with the max-style pivot point slightly behind the cockpit, will never be able to much with the Gyramax, particularly when on big pushy water. I get a kick out of being laughed at on the Ocoee when I take that boat these days. Most of the times the laughs cease when I tell folks that they were not even born yet when I took that boat down the river for the first time! Heh-heh......sorry....just couldn't resist that one. If I really wanted the edge experience, I'd take my old Apple Cudamax, and even it is considered "high volume" by slalom boat standards nowdays.
About the C-2 roll....two experienced paddlers can certainly roll C-2. I've done it many times. Used to roll up after side-surfing hades Hole on the Ocoee back when the bridge piling was still just below it.....that was a place where you had BETTER get it right, and fast! Most folks (me included) believe it best for the bow paddler to change sides underwater to the stern paddler's side, and then initiate the roll. The stern paddler stays in set-up position until he feels the initiation, and then kicks in. You would be surprised at how powerful it is when it's done right. You have to be careful to not keep going and do a 360, especially since you have no brace on the other side until the bowman switches sides. It's also technically possible to have the bowman do an offside roll, but we always considered that too weak for a real whitewater situation. It only takes a few seconds for the bow man to switch sides underwater. I don't know about the bow paddler just leaning back...I think it mighty be too high center of gravity on the last part of the roll, but it might be possible.
Hades Hole....LOL... I saw that in my last post just above, and tried to correct it to the real name, and it wouldn't let me, in fact, it put it in there when I submitted the post. Is there some kind of automatic "bad word deletion" on this forum? I'm new here.
Richard
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