C-Forum

So I fully admit I am NOT the Master of all things Pry and I rarely practice them as much as I should. I suspect I'm not the only one though.... Do you think people use all of these Pry's as often as they should? Or is there really any reason to?

http://www.canoerootsmag.com/blogs/skil ... e-pry.html

I fully blame the fact that I started out as a Kayaker first and then got into open boating. Maybe if it were the other way around I'd get it.

Dan Caldwell
Rapid Media TV Guy

For WW theres only 2 Prys... a pry, and a righting pry. It takes tons of training to get an 'instinctual righting pry'...but a regular pry you just have to use every now and then and it will remain in your arsenal.

I use Prys and Draws to shift the boat to avoid things like branches, rocks, holes, ect.

In this day and age, with such short ww boats, the pry has become almost forgotten, as it isn't really needed....but it can help .

gnarlz... that's,

Blind Speak

• and pure adulterated nonsense

Sure some people may not use pry's, but only the truly unexperienced would think to speak for everyone else. I find uses for a simple pry, or added as another component to another stroke all the time. And why not, they have been used for a long long time? Archimedes proved the usefulness of a lever sometime during the 3rd century BC. And so easy on the body. In use they are (way) easy to master. Probably far easier than most any other stroke. They can be used to make flat water paddling quieter. They are unequaled when the need for power arises, so the bigger the water you paddle - the more they can be of use. Do you want to pry, your way down the river? Probably not, for they do tend to give away some power or loss of speed. However they can be used to speed you up also. Just think about how many other strokes it might take, to have the same effect.... when maybe just one, and you're on to the use of others.

I use an Offside Stern Pry. I actually use it a lot on upstream moves.
It must be developed in a package though, combined with a roll.

It must look like absolute dysfunctional crap and you will have to be able to handle the constant enquiries: "What is That?"
I have never seen a video of me downing a Offside Stern Pry and I don't think I want to.

I paddle a loooong boat, a Viper 11, and the O.S.Pry REALLY cranks it around, especially if I can get the nonpower face on opposing downstream current to up the leverage. It also drives my gunwhale down on my offside stern, helping me change chines in a hurry. Did I mention the roll? My OS Pry often starts from an Off Side Draw, just let the paddle snap back with the current, although lately I just go there directly.
I find it very shoulder friendly, T grip forward, shaft grip across body.

It was taught to me by friend and my "beat me up Instructor" Lyle Dickieson during Playboating seminars and my first reaction was "not likely dude" but... I tried and I persevered, using it in easy stages, until one day I found I was using it automatically and liking it.
Oddly enough, I find Offside moves really efficient, somehow the irregular body posture gives a steep shaft angle with a flat blade.


It can be covered by other moves but I like the headspace challenge, kinda like Telemarking. It is kinda a lonely move though, I haven't been able to promote it.
(Edited once for clarity, I hope)

ok ok. I didn't mean to speak for everyone else. But bottom line is most ww canoers that I see on the river, hardly ever use prys... especially if they are in a short boat...

I could go into the bit of what I use prys for... i mean heck... I use a backward cross-stroke pry to stop my boat in mid current to initiate a backferry... But that doesn't really relate to what I was saying... in this day and age, w/ short ww canoes...other than a STERN PRY,.. the pry is almost forgotten....and i might add, that one could benefit from having a quiver of prys in the arsenal.

Not everyone is a master paddler like yourself phil

I use lots of pries. You didn't specify what kind of boat or what kind of water though. I think different pries get used more or less in tandem or solo. I am more conscious of the variety of strokes I use when I am paddling the WW boat on flatwater or in the pool. When I am in WW I am more thinking about my line and whether I'm on it than cataloging the stroke I am using.

Shep

Yeah - knew you didn't mean 4it to sound quite like you wrote....



... but with such a easy target, I just had to take it.

Forgot that I do it. I find the backwards cross stroke a useful stall, use it a lot.
It gives the offside moves a Full House, allowing me to stay there with the stick constantly in the water, avoiding the air brace.

I only use a pry when I have a boat on its edge...

In some boats that edge goes all the way around the darn thing!

I sometimes have to use a pry to get out of LAME websites that I'm led to by bogus, commercial threads.

Thought that it was an interesting article and since I the Boy Scouts I taught this weekend were constantly complaining about using the pry I wondered what other folks thought about them.

Sorry if being directed to a free article put you off, just thought it was worthy of discussion. Is there a better place to post it?

Dan Caldwell
Rapid Media TV Guy

FullGnarlzOC wrote:For WW theres only 2 Prys... a pry, and a righting pry. It takes tons of training to get an 'instinctual righting pry'...but a regular pry you just have to use every now and then and it will remain in your arsenL...

other than a STERN PRY,.. the pry is almost forgotten....and i might add, that one could benefit from having a quiver of prys in the arsenal.

YOU... are just a frikkin' trip. It's been a long time since someone round here showed, on a regular basis, so much of how little they know with such arrogance and pride.

I pry all the time, I'm a prior. Admittedly, more often in the flatwater craft...

I sometimes have to use a pry to get out of LAME websites that I'm led to by bogus, commercial threads.

In exchange for my e-mail address I got to read an entire issue of a canoe magazine for free. I can live with that. I already have a Rapid subscription, might have add Canoe Roots...

I much prefer the forward stroke ended with a short quick pry to the J-stroke. I think I can develop more power and speed that way, but I'm no Class V paddler. The shorter the boat the more the pry at the end of the forward stroke helps to keep the bow from deflecting to my off side. So I probably use the pry nearly as much as the forward stroke since it is part of it.

I concur with cheajack. A forward stroke ended with a short quick pry is my standard spinny ww-boat accelerator.

Obviously, if i'm trying to get out of an eddy or othrewise paddling aggressively, alternating short forwards with some cross-forwards allows for a quicker speed buildup.

I have seen some posts suggesting that "prying is bad habits" but I paddle pretty well and hard with this being my pry-mary forward stroke. Am I wrong to do so?

--Z