Hi again everyone. Having some trouble setting hip braces in my sea kayak. I know that some techniques, such as doing a re-entry and roll can often move the braces (with the body coming into the cockpit. Anyone in here come up with a solid system to set them up? Or product recommendations? Thanks in advance…I need them to be solid for rolling and bracing. I would prefer to hit some more aggressive seas this coming summer…
Minicell
There are a number of strap-in braces out there, a couple of which I’ve tried in my Squall. Is that what you are using? They usually come with a few pads of minicell so that you can build up or down the thickness as needed. There are also inflatable ones I have seen in whitewater boats, which I suspect can be much tighter than the ones I have.
I found mine did tend to loosen up with repeated use, but when the Squall was my primary boat I tended to find a quick check before each paddle was all I needed. That said, I got up a few times in the Squall but never made any consistency on a roll. It was mostly the idiot paddler, but the slight movement in the hip braces may have added to the problem.
My current boat has glued-in minicell, a block on each side that was glued onto the side of the seat and left a little thick at first. I spent the first several weeks I had the boat gradually shaving it into shape with a shaper I got from Home Depot - just an inexpensive hand-held thing. I forget what we used to glue it in, but the stuff is very solid. After a year of heavy use the only place that needs a little more now is one corner of the strip under a thigh brace.
The minicell is way better than the strap-ins. You can get the stuff preshaped with a ridge to catch your hip (if you sit that deep in the boat) at most kayak shops that handle whitewater. Check with them on the glue, and by the way Super 7 doesn’t hold up to salt water near as well as this other stuff (that comes in a white and brown can which name I can’t remember) - which is alsoi available at places like Home Depot.
Celia
Thanks for the help
I am actually paddling a P&H SIrius, with a 20.5 beam. However, I still need to get in some solid bracing…my roll is failign as a result of no hip bracing. I still get up but usully on a high brace…so I am going to try out the minicell , thanks again.
DAP Weldwood Contact Cement
Is the glue to use. Put it on both the minicell block and the receiving surface, let it get tacky for a few minutes then put them together. But be sure you are right or be ready to sacrifice the foam block if you change your mind - the stuff really holds. If it gets inside the boat elsewhere no big deal - it’ll roll off of hard surfaces like rubber cement.
(I was just in the basement finishing up the buffing on my boat and came across a can of it.)
I have tried the Sirius, very sweet boat. Though finding the secondary stability point was fuzzy at best… but maybe because we were in relatively flat water. They wouldn’t let their customers go out into the bay. (bummer!) For my size (5’4") the edge of the seat would have allowed the top of the hip block to actually catch my hip. (In my Explorer LV the boat stops lower than my hip, but the fit under the deck is so tight with the extra small keyhole cockpit my hip doesn’t need to grab anything.)
Celia