Fit Your Kayak with Personalized Seats and Padding

Kayaking has become one of the most popular outdoor activities, blending exercise with a new perspective on the world – looking out from the water, rather than out to it. For the most experienced kayakers, their vessels function like extensions of their bodies. The better they fit, the more control and maneuverability a kayaker has, and it makes for a more comfortable experience as well. Most kayaks are formed from generic molds however, meaning few people fit into them perfectly right off the rack.

For snug personalization and comfort that helps kayakers paddle for longer, firm foam is a material people have turned to to fit hulls to their bodies, giving them a better handle on the kayak than allowed by the stock shell alone. The most important parts of a custom kayak is the seat, which dictates how high or low you sit in the shell, as well as the angle you paddle. The seat also impacts stability and comfort. In the wrong position, a ride can not only be uncomfortable, it can be unsteady as your weight slides around. Custom seats are often carved from blocks of cross-linked polyethylene, an extra-firm closed-cell foam. This foam block is easily cut, trimmed, and even sanded to meet the contours and support needs of your body. The greatest benefit of creating your own seat is that you can test its feel and comfort as you build it. All sides of a foam block can be shaped, so you can even carve and sculpt the bottom to fit the hull as well as it fits your body.

Foot, hip, and knee padding is an important consideration as well. A loosely-fitting kayak is more difficult to steer and control than one you can maneuver with leg and body weight movement. Thinly cut sheets of the same closed-cell polyethylene XLPE used in seats add a cushion that makes a kayak more comfortable and snug. Improving comfort and maneuverability adds up to an improvement in safety as well, so outfitting a kayak with foam gives people the best kayaking experience possible.