A young man from east of the Mississippi, the largest river in the United States, travels west to experience the Wild & Scenic Rogue River in Oregon.
Read More "A River Connection, Part Three In A Series"
It's common to find professionals in the outdoor industry at the forefront of design and performance, leading the use of new technologies and materials and adapting their tools to the job at hand. Sawyer is no different, and continuous feedback from professional guides, outfitters, and athletes drives our innovation. With a racing history (see Part 1 in the series) that influenced design, handcrafting wood oars out of raw materials like Ash, Cedar, and Douglas Fir, and composite oars and blades (fiberglass and carbon fiber) for fishing guides and anglers took a different approach to the centuries old task; controlling a boat on a body of water safely, and back home again. Today, an oarsman might make 1000 oar strokes per mile. After 10 years of guiding anglers myself, and with many sets of oars, today's Sawyer lightweight and high-performance products are perfect for professionals and recreational users.
When we design oars and oar blades for anglers, the end result isn't always a finished product that fits the traditional profile. As you read before, the Shoal Cut blade was designed with shallow-water applications in mind. I liken it to the differences between a spoon and a knife. Buttering a slice of warm sourdough right of the toaster? A knife with a long, thin blade for an even application. A bowl of oatmeal for breakfast along with it? A spoon, of course (yes, we'll even talk about the beloved Spork in future posts!).
Brian Wheeler, a professional fly fishing guide in Montana, has two sets of Sawyer oars for different boats and purposes. At around 80 days a season guiding and another 40 or so floating with his wife and their dogs, they spend most of their time on the Big Hole, Beaverhead, Madison, and Smith rivers. Here's his take.
Brian is clearly a toast-is-best-buttered kind of guide. Until next time, when we'll hear from a member of our speciality shop team, on why they choose Sawyer for their customers. Eddy Out!
After a legendary canoe racing career, which includes being a 10 time AuSable River Canoe Marathon Champion (and recently being inducted into the Canoe Racing Hall of Fame), Ralph Sawyer began building paddles and oars. In 1967, he established Sawyer Paddles and Oars in the small town of Rogue River, Oregon, where he quickly fell in love with whitewater rafting and began producing whitewater oars. Sawyer oars were soon found in the hands of river outfitters all over North America with a reputation for quality, performance, value and beauty. Ralph drove the use of Douglas fir, for its high strength to weight ration and flex in combination with Ponderosa Pine and Sawyer's signature Walnut racing stripes. His use of these woods in combination with fiberglass popularized the concept of composite paddles. Ralph is now retired and enjoys exploring the Puget Sound and Alaskan waterways from his home, an ocean faring catamaran, with his wife Roberta (a.k.a. Bobbie).
Bruce Bergstrom took the helm in 1987 and propelled the company's innovation and reputation of durability. Most noted was the introduction of the Sawyer SquareTop Oar matched with another of his innovations, the Cobra Oar Lock. This combination is a favorite among drift boat fisherman and whitewater rafters, which may row a thousand strokes per mile positioning for the perfect cast or negotiating heavy whitewater. The two innovations paired together make for the highest performing whitewater oar and oarlock system in the world. Bruce also acquired chief rival Smoker Oars & Paddles in 1992. The acquisition set up Sawyer to be the premier paddle & oar maker in the USA, complete with a durable line of composite oars balanced by a line of legendary solid ash wood oars for extreme conditions. Bruce was recently awarded a lifetime achievement award by the American Outdoors Association for his contributions to our industry.
A few years later after the Shoal Cut blades were developed, I finally decided it was time to give them a try. We took a set of them on an 8 day trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon on a low water September trip. We decided to take only Shoal Cut Square Tops along to force the issue of testing them well. It was immediately apparent upon entering "Door #2" on the very first technical spot that shoal cut blades would be an advantage. The entry to this drop is very shallow and the blades provided great purchase on the shallow water. More importantly, the rounded shape was glancing off rocks nicely rather than pitoning and grabbing as I was accustomed to. After running them in larger rapids feathering the blades on lateral waves, I found the shape to be excellent for fine feather on big waves. On one occasion I managed to jam an oar and pop it out of the oarlock. That is when I learned that SquareTop oars float very high and do not sink like hollow oars can. We easily retrieved the lost oar a short distance downstream floating high in an eddy. We have not rowed anything else since that day. The Shoal Cut Square Top Artisan Series oars are now standard equipment on all Streamtech Boats packages.
We'll talk to Guides, Outfitters, and Specialty shop owners about their oar and blade preferences, what and where they work and row, and their experience with Sawyer products. Eddy Out!