Kayak Seats

Matthew Kerr · Post by **Matthew Kerr** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:58 am

Any thoght on kayak seats. I have built two Venture 14's and I am almost at the point of seats. I don't know whether to buy seats or make. Also with the shallow depth of the kayaks I am thinking something thin as just the seat pad. Any thoughts

would be very helpfull.

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:12 pm

The comfort (or lack of it) can make or break a day of paddling. However, comfort is a personal thing. Some people like a partially inflated thermarest seat pad folded in two, others may prefer a wooden slat seat, a sculpted foam seat or a ready-made foam seat. Some of these choices require a separate backrest and anchoring points such as butt plates and some have a seatback built-in.

Does this help you at all?

willo · Post by **willo** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:24 pm

I am just getting ready to build a seat for the Venture that my son and I are building. I bought a piece of 3" minicel foam. I sed 1/2 of it for a bulkhead and plan on using the rest for a seat.Check out oneoceankayaks site and there is a good description for building a seat with both thick and thin foam..

pawistik · Post by **pawistik** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:45 pm

I'm pretty happy with my version of the sculpted minicell foam seat.

I bought my foam from Redfish Kayak. Have a look at their seats: http://www.redfishkayak.com/seats.htm

Here are some more seat references:
http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Wshophtm/Shop18.htm

These are the instructions I followed:http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Wshophtm/kayakseat18a.htm

http://pawistik.blogspot.com/2007/04/pl ... art-1.html

Cheers,
Bryan

KenC · Post by **KenC** » Mon Jun 15, 2009 10:52 pm

Chalk up another vote for the sculpted foam seats ... I am very happy with mine ... never any numbness or discomfort ... I think I also used the OneOcean instructions, though I can't quite remember.

Bryan ... how thick is that slab? It looks thicker than what I used.

pawistik · Post by **pawistik** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:15 am

KenC wrote:Bryan ... how thick is that slab? It looks thicker than what I used.

It's a full 4"! :smile It was much thicker and much cheaper than anything I could find locally. I bought the 4" x 16" x 24" block for $24 (it doesn't appear that he's changed his prices in the last couple of years), a 2" piece, 1" piece, and had bunch of assorted pieces thrown in too. With shipping, and duties at the border, I still came out way ahead.

Carving the minicell is easy but messy. I used a paint-stripping wheel attachment on my drill and it went quickly. I think I also used various rasps. I cut it to match the bottom of my kayak using a band saw & a japanese saw.

The spots under the bottom of the bum are thin, maybe half an inch or less, but the whole bum is supported so well that the weight is spread out well. The front under the thighs rises up to support the legs in the position that they adopt when paddling and with the feet on the foot brace (also made out of minicell). Note that Redfish also sells pre-sculpted foam blocks that you would cut to fit the kayak and possibly fine tune.

http://redfishkayak.com/foam.htm

Cheers,
Bryan

KenC · Post by **KenC** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:55 am

I thought it must be 4" ... I used 3" slab from Noah's in Toronto, and I probably paid more than you ... that's a good deal.

I saw one of Joe's custom seats in an Outer Island this past weekend ... he does a nice job, and apparently he's fast ... customizes to fit most common hull-shapes, in only about a week or so from order to arrival.

Cheers;
Ken

Don · Post by **Don** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:02 pm

Hi
In my last kayak I used a custom molded fiberglass seat. I got the idea from an old post on the Guillemot Kayaks building forum (post was by Shawn Baker). Basically I sat in a big puddle of plaster of Paris while wearing my wet suit and used the resulting form as a mold for a glass seat. The result fit great, had extended support for the legs and light weight with quite low center of gravity. Full directions are on Shawn's web site. Just another option.
best
don

Glen Smith · Post by **Glen Smith** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:12 pm

Shawn's seat instructions are here: http://www.geocities.com/shawnkayak/seat/

Rod Tait · Post by **Rod Tait** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:07 pm

Bryan,
I am curious to know how much you actually paid in Can. funds with exchange, shipping and duties. I also sell the foam and would lilke to compare pricing to stay competitive.

pawistik · Post by **pawistik** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:31 am

Rod Tait wrote:Bryan,
I am curious to know how much you actually paid in Can. funds with exchange, shipping and duties. I also sell the foam and would like to compare pricing to stay competitive.

That's a good question Rod. I tried to dig it up, but I can't find any documentation of what I actually paid with duties at the border added on. However, I do know that I was pretty happy in the end with the price paid compared to other options I was able to find (local canoe shop, or ordering from Noah's). I considered using the minicell floor pads (the interlocking things for shop & play room floors) but even those would have saved me little if any money.

Rod, I wished I was local to you so that I could drop in and shop or even just visit. There is little doubt that having a shop such as yours nearby would light some creative fires and trigger more boat building.

Cheers,
Bryan

The Bear Mountain Boat Shop

Kayak Seats

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