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Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:15 pm
by Sir Adam
Yes, BotW is back!

I know lots of us have owned a Gyra Max, even some "newer" paddlers here that picked one up cheap to try CBoating. I've never been a big fan of the boat, but admit that at the time it came out it was ground breaking (it IS high performance... compared to it's predecessor the Sage...).

https://www.cboats.net/c_db/list.php?ty ... Gyra%20Max" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Please post your thoughts, tales, and images in this thread as always!

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:48 pm
by Bob P
Got me picher in the newspaper!

Image

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:21 pm
by ezwater
Most evenings at NOC, some cook would emerge from the kitchen, board his yellow Gyramax, and run off a million or two front and back enders at the Falls.

It was almost as much fun as watching Dick Wooten side surf his OCA, sans float bags as usual.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:25 pm
by ezwater
Isn't it kinda interesting that Davey Hearn designed the Gyromax the way he did, and then Jon Lugbill turned out the Cascade for Dagger?

I only paddled each one once. The Cascade was close to fishorm. The Gyramax needed more rocker, just behind the cockpit. (Same for my Phoenix Seewun, sort of similar to the GM but rounder, faster, and worse handling.)

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 2:00 am
by Kelly-Rand
I last paddle my GyroMax in 2002 when I bought the Atom. It was my first C1 and I've never missed it. Looking back its rounded hull was not the right shape for how I fit in a canoe.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 2:42 pm
by ezwater
Interesting, it felt much "flatter" underneath than my old Phoenix C-1.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 6:20 pm
by overthehill
ezwater, I remember the cook, Mervin, and his buddy Kevin Taz Riggs. Back in the mid '80s, usually late evening, those guys would throw enders until dark. The NOC used to carry a postcard with Taz's picture in a big front ender there, wearing an old Joe Brown climbing helmet. Good times.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 6:43 pm
by overthehill
Me and a buddy paddling Gyras, left high and dry during a "flash drought" on the Locust Fork in Alabama..Spring '84

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2014 10:08 pm
by Brendan
Gyramax was my first c-1. I bought it from Bob Gunst and it had some creases from when he had taken the saddle out and folded it to get it into a small plane! I almost got killed in that boat trying to surf it in the ocean. :o

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:30 pm
by sbroam
My father-in-law (kayaker) and Ed Caudill (C-1er) were my early paddling mentors. Ed paddled a Gyramax till he got a Magnet, but kept the Gyramax for enders in the "Pop-Up Hole" on the Saluda, which was notorious for grinding off the right side of the noses of long boats and, perhaps an apocryphal tale, was why Perception started making nose cones.

Ed getting "just one more" ender :

Image

I tried one early on (too early) and did nothing but swim from it. I ended up with two several years ago and tried one out - couldn't find anything to like about it. The saddle (only one between the two) got swapped for a paddle, the cockpit rims went to Bill P for a C-2 project, one hull went to become a sign, and the other hull became to sleds (but not very good sleds...)

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2014 8:21 pm
by Don Williams
The GyraMax was the first boat I owned; with it I had a creeker, river runner, and play boat all in one. :D Canoe and Kayak had a review that worried that it might be too "hot" for the beginning or average boater.

While it sort of deserved its nicknames of "GyraPig" or "Oil Tanker" it was better than its Tupperware predecessors or contemporary (Hydra Centaur)) It might not have been eager to track or turn but it side surfed decently and was the best boat for that other obsolete move of enders I have owned.
Gyra Ender.jpg
Below the Dumplings West River Vermont
https://picasaweb.google.com/1170168352 ... 9853310850

I remember paddling with Taz (he said it was short for Tasmanian Devil) down south and doing enders at the Falls until you could barely see the takeout.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 2:06 am
by clt_capt
Taz pretty much had the falls nailed...

I was regularly paddling a batmax in those days, but spent a bunch of days in a gyramax for bony rivers and flat out play... Obviously not nearly as responsive and the lack of real edges to carve on caught me a bunch - but it was a huge step up from the centaur and lightyears ahead of the sage.

The outfitting was actually pretty good - decent saddle, good straps. no major complaints.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2014 6:23 pm
by wildwaterc2
My brother and I still paddle ours when we go cruising on whitewater. I had my 1991 red one on the Lower Yough and New Gorge a couple of weeks ago. I cracked two yellow cross-linked ones in the mid-80s until the red linear plastic one from 1991. It has a crack in the rear cockpit rim but is still viable. I've spent so many hours paddling that boat over the years that it is so predictable it makes it hard to get into anything else. Being wildwater paddlers it does not feel fast but it is a lot faster than a Atom or Cascade, let alone a Centaur.

Most paddlers do tend to really stare at it today - not sure if they wonder if they are in a time machine or simply what in the world the boat is.

I've got an old VHS of David Benner paddling his in an early Green run also.

Re: Boat of the Week - Perception Gyra Max

Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2014 11:14 pm
by clt_capt
Here is a link to David Benner in a Gyramax in Linville Gorge (along with a few double bladers...)

http://www.alexjharvey.com/media/Linvil ... br-768.wmv" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;