Seat Pads

The way you sit in a kayak places almost all your weight on your butt, and there is little way to vary your position. In a short time you can get very sore. If your kayak has any kind of seat pad at all, it is a thin hard cruel joke that does not help in the least.

These thick neoprene foam bleacher cushions are a huge improvement over the thin pads that come with the boat ( if it even has those! ) Stack two for real comfort. Tie them to the seatback with a piece of bungie cord.

If your boat has an adjustable seat back, adjust it slightly forward of vertical. That way, when you lean on it, it will be straight and support your back the way it should.


Update:

I recently took the factory seat pad off my boat. I’ve come to the conclusion that it does nothing at all. I think it was just put there for looks. For whatever it is worth, I now sit a half inch lower in the boat. I also took the sun-beaten pad off the backrest, and don’t miss it at all.


When dealing with a non-negligible wind or current situation, you’ll probably think it will be fun to go with it and have a good ride. That’s fine if you are making a one-way trip, but if you are making a round-trip back to your starting point, this is a very bad idea. The boost can carry you much further than you realize, and then you’ll have to fight against it all the way back. Your fun day out can turn into a miserable slog.

It’s much better and safer to head into the current on the outbound leg, and let it carry you home on the return.

Printed from njkayak.net