Oar Length & Snowpack Update | Gear Garage Live Show

Oar Length & Snowpack Update | Gear Garage Live Show

From Gear Garage Live Show by Whitewater Guidebook

May 18, 2026 · 22 min

About this episode

Zach discusses whitewater gear and oar sizing while highlighting the Clackfest festival.

Episode Summary Zach kicks off the episode by highlighting Clackfest, the Northwest's premier annual whitewater gathering. He notes that the festival has expanded its schedule with vendor booths, gear demos, and live music kicking off early, followed by a full schedule of multi-category river races on Saturday. The core technical discussion addresses a viewer planning a trip down Hell's Canyon who is expanding their setup with a 16-foot AIRE raft. The viewer asks about stretching an NRS Bighorn frame out to a 69-inch width, creating a 78-inch gap between the oar locks. Zach uses his standard sizing formula to calculate that this configuration requires a 10.5-foot oar. He strongly advises against mounting oar towers to the inner frame rails as a shortcut to use shorter oars, recommending instead that the viewer use temporary oar extensions on their existing 9.5-foot oars until they can purchase dedicated 10.5-foot oars. The episode wraps up with a discussion on the ultimate boats for tackling big, technical class V whitewater like the North Fork Payette. Zach names the 12.5-foot Sotar Legend as his absolute top choice due to its perfected design, placing the AIRE Wave Destroyer as…

People in this episode

Host: Zach

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Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Products: AIRE raft, NRS Bighorn frame, 10.5-foot oar, 9.5-foot oars, 12.5-foot Sotar Legend, AIRE Wave Destroyer

Places: Hell's Canyon, North Fork Payette

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