{"id":23725,"date":"2024-02-20T11:10:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T10:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/?p=23725"},"modified":"2024-08-01T16:52:42","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T15:52:42","slug":"which-river-runner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/which-river-runner\/","title":{"rendered":"Which River Runner?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Honestly, it\u2019s not easy to choose a Pyranha downriver, half-slice kayak these days. I currently have four of them sitting outside my window, vying for my attention to get loaded up on the car and taken to the river.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a stocky 73kg (160 lbs), and depending on the river’s power, I like to swap between the Medium and Large sizes of Pyranha Kayaks.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Large Ripper<\/a> is arguably my favourite kayak ever. I can take this kayak to any kayaking zone on the planet and be stoked about my kayak choice 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, I find myself wishing I had 100% of the Scorch L<\/a>\u2026 but still, the vast majority of the time, I want to be in the Ripper L. I find it incredible for tailies, I can cartwheel it in a deep hole, and when I\u2019m running rivers, I feel confident and fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Medium Ripper.\u00a0The dust gathers on the cockpit rim as it sits in between the favourite Ripper L and the fancy new Firecracker<\/a>. The Medium Ripper is an incredible kayak, but I can still get the large vertical easily enough, and the extra volume makes river running much easier\u2026 Why, then, do I keep this kayak? Because every time I get in it I am shocked at what a weapon it is and the different skills I can use\u00a0only<\/em>\u00a0in this kayak. It\u2019s just a touch small for me to use with a camera bag and first aid kit in it on big, chunky rivers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Firecracker 242. I was confident I wasn\u2019t going to like it that much, all the way up until the first lap. Then I understood it for what it was, a kayaking motivational booster. There are days when the level isn\u2019t that great, but in the Firecracker, I know I will have a good time and be able to find a way to challenge myself. The soft edges and extra width inspire confidence in less confident kayakers, and it is ridiculously easy to tailie. This kayak makes me kayak more!<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Firecracker 252. This is a truly big kayak. I think it will be incredible for actually large-sized kayakers. For myself, at my size, it\u2019s just too much boat to throw around, and I think that I might throw one of my ribs out along with it. I find it pretty cool that it\u2019s a genuinely big kayak for big people and has been scaled up well. I keep it in the fleet because I\u2019m pretty sure I will hit the biggest loop ever in it when I eventually find the right hole to loop it in, and it could be great to have the large version if I go back to Turkey again\u2026 Last year’s trip was at high water with the medium Firecracker, and it was a touch sporty at times!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, on a medium-low day on my local river, I\u2019m taking the large Ripper. It\u2019s cold, and I don\u2019t want to play that much, but I still want to do a few tailies, surf some waves, and hit all the lines really cleanly. When it warms up it will be time for the return of the Firecracker.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck with your kayak choices, and see you on the water,
Bren<\/p>\n\n\n

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Bren discusses the challenges of choosing a Pyranha half-slice kayak. Weighing 73kg, he prefers the Large Ripper for its versatility and confidence, while the Firecracker 242 boosts his motivation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":23727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[1697,1623,1009,1696],"class_list":["post-23725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tests-and-reveiws","tag-best-half-slice","tag-pyranha-firecracker-review","tag-pyranha-ripper-review","tag-ripper-vs-firecracker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/IMG_2892Pyranha-blog-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9tk9G-6aF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23920,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725\/revisions\/23920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}