Ode to Prijon

By Sonya

Everyone has seen them at the back of the club store lurking and refusing to die and of course they're too practical to dump as they still have that annual novice distance race use, they must have been really popular here at some stage! Made form serious HTP plastic these are the strongest boats on the market. The fact they need no structural pillar means that you have enough room in the back for all the rescue gear and everyone's sandwiches (a great incentive to rescue your boat first should you happen to swim!)

When did we fall out of love with them then? Especially in Ireland I've seen no recent models other than my own imported ones and generally we tend to stick with the popular models we've been exposed to by our instructors etc. The time has come to admit they get a lot right. I agree that yes, generally they're not always as pretty as the other boats (with tears in my eyes) and having a hatch in the front of your river boat for your mittens can be seen as far short of hard core cool but if I'm on a river I don't know then that's the boat that I want to be in! All those alpine paddlers can't be wrong, the boats seem to be breeding on popular runs out there and as far as rental centers go having a pretty much indestructible straightforward boat has got to be a major asset.

I recently tried another boat, shiny, new, popular with the other kids etc and well recommended, I thought I'd have a one night stand just to see t, the guilt was too much! As a replacement it would fall far short providing less stability, requiring serious aggression to put it anywhere and I found that generally it needed beaten to stay on a line. On handing it back the rep agreed with all of my complaints but didn't seem to have considered a world where you can waggle a carrot in front of your boat and it will stick fast to where you want to go and take you there on 1 good power stroke, why must we be aggressive to get down a river, have they realised that technical stretches of whitewater can be a calming experience similar to yogic chanting? My conclusion to the whole affair was a fresh bunch of flowers for the faithful mitten warmer before a nice wee stretch of grade 3 boulder garden to say sorry. I shan't be straying again for a while as there's no need, it's not like she'll be out on injury time or anything.... In short, there is a certain type of person buys prijon in these modern climes, they may not be totally sane but they have practical attributes, such as a strong sense of preservation and economics as well as finding the beauty in the use and realising that handsome is as handsome does...


Footnote by Kevin

Any boat that can pull off a 4 ender cartwheel, into a double pirouette phonics monkey-mcnasty combo ..... at 60mph on a country road and still be perfect to paddle - is alright in my book.

Thanks to the handling of my prijon cross, I have changed my style completely and now go into a calm, relaxing trance on grade 4 instead of the fitting stick insect of the past.