In solo canoeing is there such thing as a forward pry? Probably sounds like a stupid question to seasoned paddlers but I have never read of such a stroke in canoe books. Most other stokes, the draw for example, are always shown as bow and stern strokes but the pry is always a stern or amidship stroke. Any help is appreciated.
Well, there is a bow "jam"
which is essentially a pry. Very effective if you can control it.
Provides excellent comic relief for those watching you lever yourself out of the boat if you can’t.
Cross bow draw works better with
less risk of tripping over your paddle. The classic pry also carrys a risk if you catch a rock with the current at your back. I do occasionally throw a wedge forward along the bow, but I keep it shallow. I very seldom use a pry when paddling solo. The pry makes more sense for the stern paddler in tandem. The bow paddler is safer throwing a cross draw if there is time.
bow pry
Sure there’s a bow pry. It’s very useful in a tandem boat when running slalom gates and a cross draw runs the risk of hitting a gate with the paddle. A bow slice is also a kind of moving forward pry.
Bow pry’s are not as useful in a solo boat.
Simply put
yes, you can do a bow pry, but there are more effective ways to move the bow offside.
I have seen it done when paddling a tandem solo Canadian style. Sue Plankis is an artist at this. While not reaching fully to the bow, she places the pry as far forward as practical to reach and she spins those 17 footers like crazy…one handed no less!
Yes, and also consider headway
You got the answer, which is that you can do a pry in the stern, amidships or in the bow, but it may or may not be the best stroke tool for the job.
But also consider whether you are moving in the water (headway), which can change your stroke mechanics.
If you are not moving at all, you will have to actually use a levered pry to move the boat. A levered pry in the stern will turn the bow toward the on-side. A levered pry amidships will slip the boat laterally to the off-side. A levered pry in the bow will turn the bow to the off-side.
Now consider that you are already moving forward with headway through the water. In this case, you don’t have to lever the pry to move the boat. You can use a static pry with some pitch angle on the blade. To move the bow to the off-side, just place the pitched blade up against the hull in front of you. No levering movement necessary. Done properly, your bow will cut sharply and powerfully to the off-side (and may even toss you out of the boat). This static pry is called a bow jam or, more recently, a bow wedge.
The bow jam is a very useful and fun tool for cutting sharp corners on twisty streams … while keeping your paddle in the water and without wasting the time or energy to lift a cross bow draw stroke over the boat.