# Can You Recommend an Oar or Paddle?



## Sawyer Paddles & Oars (Dec 22, 2020)

We're well into our 55 year Anniversary celebration featuring our partners, products, and over a half-century of handcrafting high performance paddles and oars for your rowing passions. With advances in performance and materials, new raft and hard boat builders, and a growing community of new and returning river enthusiasts, the top of the list in FAQ has been identifying the "perfect" oar or paddle. What might have worked for your '84 UDISCO (my first raft!) might have you considering an upgrade this year. (Hint, plan ahead!)

Along with length, weight, materials, blade profile, and "feel" are the advances in design from boat builders, so, what works best for you? We are launching a new page on www.paddlesandoars.com in partnership with the largest hard boat and raft builders in the country, the folks that design and know the performance features of their crafts, and can recommend the Sawyer paddle and oars that fit best, based on how they have designed their watercraft.

Keep an eye on our social media pages for more information and our launch of the "55 Days of Sawyer" in June, with weekly product giveaways and a photo contest to feature your images in our banners!

Derek


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## Oldmanriver61 (Mar 20, 2016)

Wow! '84 udisco (nova, Salt Lake) our 1st boat too. " Yeah," those were the days and nights! Well now 14ft' soft boat and 16ft' Rouge River Woodie! Love my shoal cut square tops and lights. . Look forward to the next 55! no social stuff but i will follow.


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## Randaddy (Jun 8, 2007)

I like Sawyer oars! You all are clearly an awesome manufacturer in the world of river running. I'm looking forward to a new set of "Lights" for my Max 12 soon!

But a perfect paddle? You have to go deeper into the holler for that...


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## Nanko (Oct 20, 2020)

Your oar blades, in my case Smoker WW and Dynelite XDs, are night and day better than anything else commercially available.


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

MX/FG with the ash fir blades.. Best manufactured oars ever..


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

All I want is a set of oars with indexed grips. Like a kayak paddle. Seems simple enough, but ...


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## MNichols (Nov 20, 2015)

LSB said:


> All I want is a set of oars with indexed grips. Like a kayak paddle. Seems simple enough, but ...


You could always put those goofy Gilman grips on.. but that's like indexing to the 10th power.. I had a friend that years ago decided he wanted to index his wood oars, he sanded down the handles, took a piece of quarter inch windshield washer fluid hose, split it in half and wrapped it in place with tape, then took some replacement Sawyer grips and heated them up in hot water and slid them over the oar handles, this resulted in a little bump that he could feel in his first finger joint when the blades were vertical. He seemed to like it...


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## LSB (Mar 23, 2004)

MNichols said:


> You could always put those goofy Gilman grips on.. but that's like indexing to the 10th power.. I had a friend that years ago decided he wanted to index his wood oars, he sanded down the handles, took a piece of quarter inch windshield washer fluid hose, split it in half and wrapped it in place with tape, then took some replacement Sawyer grips and heated them up in hot water and slid them over the oar handles, this resulted in a little bump that he could feel in his first finger joint when the blades were vertical. He seemed to like it...


Yeah I tried a bunch of shit like that too. And i wasn't happy with any of it. One of the best options I heard was a dude that ground some thumb notches in the ends of his grips. But I don't want to do that on my Cataracts because I might grind through to the hollow inside. Actually I'm not even sure if the grips are hollow. But it just seems silly that some company hasn't figured out a way to index an oar for those of us who don't use oar rights. I've been bitching about that on here for years but no damn body listens.


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## jberg421 (Jul 19, 2020)

LSB said:


> Yeah I tried a bunch of shit like that too. And i wasn't happy with any of it. One of the best options I heard was a dude that ground some thumb notches in the ends of his grips. But I don't want to do that on my Cataracts because I might grind through to the hollow inside. Actually I'm not even sure if the grips are hollow. But it just seems silly that some company hasn't figured out a way to index an oar for those of us who don't use oar rights. I've been bitching about that on here for years but no damn body listens.


My cataracts are indexed......


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