Never use Oar-rights again
I might catch bunch of flack for this next comment, but here goes. I really believe it. If you’re running oar-rights on your rig, you’re not not nearly as an efficient or proficient as a rower who doesn’t. Especially while fishing.
You simply cannot utilize all of the rowing techniques and subtle moves that rowers without them utilize, like sculling and other advanced techniques. You’re stuck. At one angle. Always.
This goes for whitewater too. You just can’t make those quick, dainty moves laterally that you occasionally you need to set up for big drops or specific squeezes in technical whitewater.
That said, learning how to row without them can be a bit more challenging as the oar can simply spin any way it wants especially in big heavy water. In my opinion it’s totally worth it to ditch the rights in the long run though.
Now there’s a way to not only never start using oar-rights, but also feather more intuitively, row more with less fatigue, and almost never miss a stroke. It’s called a Gilman Grip and you can put them on almost any composite oar. We tested prototypes back in 2017, and were impressed then and are more impressed today.
The company Kickstarted later that year and has come a long way — these things are catching on. Besides all the other amazing attributes, these grips basically index your hand to the oar with the blade at the perfect angle to the water. Insuring you always know where your blade is, simply by feel, thus negating any use for an oar-right and gaining everything you have without one, plus some additional features.
I recently split a new pair of pole-cat oars, with Dynalite blades finished off with Gilman Grips with a friend from Sawyer. We have five young girls under 10 between the two of us and they all love the river. The idea is to get them learning on a set of oars and never let them even know what an oar-right is. We tested them out this past weekend on the bony and super technical Arkansas river for two days and were simply overjoyed at their performance. Everyone who rowed them in our group loved them. So… if you’re looking for an alternative to an oar-right, get tired hands after a long day of rowing or just want to check out some new rowing tech, do yourself a favor and check out Gilman Grips.