{"id":24882,"date":"2026-06-18T10:19:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/?p=24882"},"modified":"2026-06-18T10:19:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T09:19:44","slug":"two-half-slices-too-good-to-choose-between","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/two-half-slices-too-good-to-choose-between\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Half-Slices Too Good to Choose Between"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For most of my whitewater career, I\u2019ve been a raft guide who also kayaks, and so my summers have been spent taking strangers down familiar waterways, my winters have been spent in a creek boat, and I\u2019ve never had much need for a half slice. That changed last summer when I decided to add videoboating to my resume. This resulted in the purchase of a well-loved Ripper 2<\/a> for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the same time, I found a deal on a Firecracker<\/a>, a boat I had wanted for years, and I couldn\u2019t pass it up. In one Spring, I went from rarely paddling a half slice to paddling my two half slices more than any other boat. I\u2019ve gone back and forth justifying owning both the Firecracker 242 and Ripper 2 M, but have never been able to let go of either. I do, however, understand the stars don\u2019t always align to allow so much overlap in a fleet. Hopefully, my experiences in both may help someone make the difficult choice I\u2019ve been avoiding between them! <\/p>\n\n\n

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Side by side, the Ripper 2 and Firecracker are quite different-looking boats. The longer, slightly flatter profile of the Ripper 2 compared to the short, wide Firecracker offers very different styles of paddling and playing. The Firecracker (which I borrowed from my local shop before I bought one on my own) was the half-slice I learned to stern-squirt in. Having finally started to understand the timing of the hip flick to get the Firecracker stern down, I was faced with frustration my first few laps in my Ripper 2 when I couldn\u2019t get it vertical. One day, though- and I wish I remembered who gave me this insight- I had the chance to be paddling with a top-tier boater who shared the nuance in getting a short, snappy stern down as opposed to long, lazy stern squirts. After that, jumping between the boats, I could iron out the adjustments, and now both offer endless play in eddy lines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as surfing, the Firecracker is of course a standout. As I try more and more Pyranha designs, I continue to reach for the Firecracker when surfing conditions on the local runs are ideal. The Ripper 2, however, performs a little tighter and snappier on waves but is a great boat to surf nonetheless. Its length can sometimes hinder me on certain waves, where the Firecracker may be better suited. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Though it sometimes comes with drawbacks, the length of the Ripper 2 really shines when I want to push myself in a half-slice. I\u2019m unsure if this is aligned with popular opinion, but if I want to take my half-slice on something steeper, I want my Ripper 2. The speed and agility that boat provides when you\u2019ve spent a lot of hours in it can really perform on some more challenging whitewater. The Firecracker can rip some beautiful boofs, but sometimes I find it a little harder to reach the speed I need to make moves and get through holes. I still feel confident in my Firecracker, but the chance of me being endered is much higher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sizing of either design will significantly affect the boat’s \u201csportiness.\u201d There\u2019s definitely a big difference between the feel of the small Ripper 2 and the large Ripper 2, but as a very medium-sized paddler, I can fit into them both pretty comfortably. When I was lighter, I preferred the Firecracker 232 but still liked the Ripper 2 Medium; now I prefer medium in both. Sizing can be tricky, and the most effective way to know which size you\u2019ll like is to get in the boats and test them out.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In conclusion, choosing between the Ripper 2 and the Firecracker is never going to be cut-and-dried. Many of one\u2019s benefits highlight where the other may have shortcomings. For anyone deciding which boat to buy next, I encourage you to try as many styles and sizes as possible and reflect on the goals you want to achieve with the boat! The beauty, I think, in these two designs is that you really can\u2019t go wrong with either, and their versatility allows paddlers with a range of goals to find the right boat. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For most of my whitewater career, I\u2019ve been a raft guide who also kayaks, and so my summers have been spent taking strangers down familiar waterways, my winters have been spent in a creek boat, and I\u2019ve never had much need for a half slice. That changed last summer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9009,"featured_media":24928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[1861,1863,1510],"class_list":["post-24882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tests-and-reveiws","tag-firecracker-review","tag-firecracker-vs-ripper-2","tag-ripper-2-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Liz.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9tk9G-6tk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24882","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\/9009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24882"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24927,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24882\/revisions\/24927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pyranha.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}