Anybody have experience using these oars?
Just had a negative experience with a competitor so I'm looking at my options. Only interested in carbon fiber. Getting old and looking for a light weight durable option.
Am aware of Sawyers product and they are under consideration.
I do...
The First Gen Pro-Loks were made by Edge, I had a pair of 10' oars that I used on a big jet sled, I beat on them pretty hard, even got them stuck in a few log jams on tight woody rivers with a big heavy boat, never broke one... I used those oars all over the country from Tennessee, North Carolina, Montana, Michigan, Washington, etc...
They were outstanding oars and when I sold the boat they went with them...
Then Dan "Pro-Loks" and Aleks "Edge" had a falling out and Dan began having his shafts made elsewhere and Aleks began making the Edge label oars. Neither of these companies made their own blades, they were made by a third party... This third party went bankrupt at one point and had the molds for their blades along with many many other companies molds that sell oars and paddles, it took them quite a while to get their molds back and during this time, oars were scarce from both companies. I know there have been times throughout Covid that both companies had issues getting product out the door as well, but that could be said for a LOT of companies in all kinds of industries. Of all of these companies, to my knowledge only Edge makes their own shafts and I believe Dan began making his own blades a couple years ago, I am not sure who makes Sawyers Bandit blades, may or may not be them.
I used to be the sales manager for a river boat company, I know Dan, Aleks and Zac "Sawyer" and have met each of them in person numerous times, they are all good people. I had customers that broke all three brands light weight carbon oars (Bandits, Pro-Loks and Edge) in pretty much equal numbers, I am sure most of those breaks were user error, but at the end of the day, most folks that own drift boats would not be considered expert oarsman, just the nature of the situation, heck I have been in the boat with a lot of guides that were not even that good on the sticks. If you are hard on gear or spend a lot of time on more extreme watersheds, none of these oars are for you. There are guys that break a dozen rods a year, then there are guys that fish just as much and could use the exact same rods and don't break a single one, it's really hard to dictate the quality of a product based off humans as humans differ so much in their behavior.
You need to look at it this way, a Porsche 911 would be worthless on an off road course with extreme terrain, but it would be absolutely amazing on the highway or a road course. A Chevy truck would not be so great on the road course, but great on the off road terrain. All three of these companies light weight models (Edge, Pro-Loks and Bandits) would be considered the Porsche obviously and Sawyer MXS and MXS-G or even Square Tops with the carbon fiber wrapping would be the Chevy truck.
Bandits are softer than the Edge or the stiff version of the Pro-Loks, the soft version of the Pro-Loks are really soft and most folks did not like them that I dealt with, the Bandits were stiffer than the soft version of Pro-Loks. I have used them all.
I no longer work for the boat company I used to, have went back to guiding, but lets say you have a skiff and fish a lot of technical water for spooky Trout, the oar lock system and non-rope wrapped oars like Edge or Pro-Loks are amazing. Honestly, most watersheds in the US excluding some of the Rockies, Appalachians and PNW, I think these light weight oars by any of the three brands would be fine from my experience selling a lot of them, that being said, for inexperienced rowers, or more volatile rivers, they would not be my first choice, but there are a lot of guides that use them and love them in these places, Sawyer MXS, MXS-G or Square Tops would be the gold standard for heavy duty oars.
Sawyer is as others have eluded to, probably a more reliable source, because they have been around forever and are a great company, but there are times when even Sawyer has limited stocks. I have heard Edge has made it through a lot of their growing pains and is a pretty great company to deal with nowadays, but I cannot confirm this as I haven't personally dealt with them in a long while now. Dan at Pro-Loks always seems to have a good stock come Winter, but again, been a long time since I dealt with him, I will say, his oars are in very high demand and most folks have nothing but great things to say about him. My experience was this, it was never as if any of these guys were bad people or shady or anything of the sort, it was much more so they made a product, it was in huge demand and then there were some supply chain issues coinciding with an even larger increase in demand as most everyone was not working and wanted to fish during the pandemic, that caused hiccups that impacted some customers, but they are all still around and if you made it through Covid, that is saying something...
P.S. I found this thread when I ran a Google search for "Edge oars" so I could order some for my new skiff I will be picking up in a couple months, this thread popped up and I clicked on it just to see what folks were saying, but thought you may appreciate a little insight from someone whom has dealt with all three companies extensively and used all of the above products extensively...
#lipstickmatters
