There are certain customizations that depend on the kayak, but here are the customizations I find that I make to almost every one of my boats.
Adding hip and thigh brace padding
Due to a bad hip, ocean cockpits and many sea kayak cockpits don’t work for me. I need a long cockpit for easier in and out and that frequently means a higher volume boat than I otherwise need. Adding hip padding allows me to lock into the cockpit when the water gets rough without giving up my ease of entry and exit. Many manufacturers sell a hip fit kit that can save a lot of time and effort and look like OEM instead of homemade, but closed-cell foam (CCF or minicell foam) can be used for DIY projects.
Most boats have a little bit of foam on the underside of the deck near the front of the cockpit for your thighs/knees to contact the hull. When your legs are relaxed they are not in contact with the boat. But when you need to brace yourself in the boat for rough water, wind, boat wakes, edging, etc. you should be able to move your heels to lift your thighs/knees just an inch or so to make contact. If you are lifting more than an inch then you can add some CCF to the area. I usually get a 12″ x 12″ sheet of 3/8″ self-adhesive minicell foam and cut it to fit the area. If you need something thicker you can build up multiple layers.
Modifying the seat
It used to be that manufacturers didn’t pay much attention to seats. They added a semi-human-shaped hard pan and a thin little back band and assumed that everyone would modify the seat to fit their own body. I can understand that since it is difficult to create a one-size-fits-all seat when everyone’s butt is different and up until about 10 years ago people came to kayaking with at least some background in boating. But with the explosion in kayak sales and usage manufacturers have had to do a better job with seats since most of these people are newbies to small craft and don’t have any idea how to modify something as important, as personal, and as complicated as a seat that is comfortable for 6-10 hours at a stretch.
In some of my kayaks I’ve had to add padding or a cushion to the seat and/or to the back rest, in others I’ve replaced the seat back with a back band, in one I had to add a lumbar pad, in others I’ve added foam under the front of the seat to get the right up-angle so my legs don’t go to sleep, and in still others I pulled the seat out and replaced it entirely with a different one. All I can say is, make the changes slowly, give each minor change you make some in-the-cockpit time to see if it makes things better – a couple of long paddles at least – because what feels good for 15 minutes may feel painful after 3 hours and vice versa. But also know that there are a lot of options and no right or wrong solution. It’s just whatever gives your body the support it needs to sit upright and be comfortable.
One option for the seat pan that I really like is the Jackson Sweet Cheeks. This is an inflatable cushion full of little round balls – sort of like a bean bag chair. You strap and/or Velcro the cushion on the seat, inflate the cushion with about 3 breaths, sit down in it, wiggle your bum around until comfortable, then suck all the air out. The bottom of the cushion molds to the seat pan or existing seat, the top of the cushion molds to your butt, et voilà – the perfect seat customized to your boat and YOUR bum. And you only have to repeat this molding procedure if you take the Sweet Cheeks out or you loan your boat to someone else. Highly recommended. https://jacksonkayak.com/sweet-cheeks-100-black-with-stripe/
Heel padding
You heels move around a lot under the foot pegs. Perhaps not much in distance, but they are constantly moving in small increments back and forth and side-to-side. Adding a bit of CCF under the foot pegs can make a big difference, especially in a v-shaped hull where your heels contact the boat not only on the bottom but also on the sides, and I think I have added some to every one of my boats. I usually use a 12″ x 12″ sheet of 3/8″ self-adhesive minicell foam and cut it in half giving me two 6″ x 12″ strips. Then it’s simply peel and stick.
Since your heels are constantly moving and some shoes have rough soles, I usually have to replace these heel pads every couple of years. But it’s inexpensive and better to have the friction on the pads than on the inside of the hull of the boat.
Adding reflective patches for increased visibility
A kayak is a small boat and sits very low in the water. I do everything I can to make it more visible to other boats as well as to aid Search and Rescue if I ever need help. And reflective patches and stripes can also make your boat more visible in low light when you’re transporting it on your vehicle or trailer.
I generally add the following to every boat:
1) a reflective pin stripe (from an automotive store) around the perimeter on top of the seam where deck and hull meet.
2) a reflective vinyl name decal (You DO name your boat, right?)
3) reflective patches in a couple of places on the deck
4) if the boat did not come with reflective perimeter line I replace with reflective line
5) add reflective patches to my paddle blades
A couple of large reflective patches on your paddle blades is a great safety device. With the kayak being small and low on the water, most land- and sea-based SAR report seeing a moving paddle looooong before noticing a kayak hull, a head, or a PFD in the water. (For this reason I don’t care much about the color of my kayak or my PFD or my clothing because they are just too small for SAR to see.) In daylight, you can waggle your paddle to catch the sun and reflect light back to people on the shore or on-coming boats. At night those patches will reflect light from searchlights or you can shine your own headlamp on them.
Keel protection
I don’t usually add keel protection to my PE (polyethylene) boats. I buy PE boats to bash around (in the water, never on land), but for FG and ABS boats I always add a strip of keel protection. My preferred brand is KeelEazy. There may be other brands as good, but I’m used to KeelEazy and can apply it pretty well. Basically it is a 2″ wide (you can purchase wider, but for v-shaped hulls 2″ works well) strip of flexible PVC with adhesive on one side that you apply to the keel using a heat gun or hair dryer to activate the adhesive.
A few years back on a low water Suwannee River trip I misread the line and ended up on top of a limestone (very sharp rocks) shoal. The current was swift and the rocks were full of solution holes so getting out risked a lot of cuts and scrapes at the least, breaking an ankle at the worst. All I could do was scooch the boat across the shoal until it was back in the water. I stopped at the next landing spot to make sure the boat was not taking on water and since it was not I continued on for the remaining 2.5 days of the trip. I only got a good look at the bottom when I got home and this is what I saw.
After removing the damaged KeelEazy the keel of the boat had only suffered a few minor scratches, similar to the scratches you see on the unprotected surface of the hull. Cleaning, polishing with Novus #3, then #2, then buffing and you can now hardly tell anything happened. Which just shows that the KeelEazy did it’s job, acting as a sacrificial layer to take all the scrapes and gouges instead of the hull. In spite of the cost (it’s $4 per foot for the 2″ wide), I’ve put KeelEazy on all my non-PE boats ever since.
It’s easy to apply if you read the instructions and take your time. If you’re a slap-dash sort of person you might want to find an outfitter willing to do it and paying them for their time. There are several youtube videos that walk you through installing KeelEazy, this one youtube.com/watch?v=ERiLWY5Cb-8 is probably the best. The keys are a good cleaning first and going slowly, taking your time to keep it smooth around the curves so you have no gaps on the sides to capture sand and dirt.
You can order KeelEazy ( https://www.keeleazy.com/ ) directly from the manufacturer and get it in your choice of several colors or you can purchase it from some kayak shops, but usually only in white.
Deck storage for spare paddle
On my longer touring boats I always carry a spare paddle. Breaking or losing your paddle when you’re 2 miles off the coast or 3 days into a 6-day trip is not fun – duck tape can only do so much. Sticking them under the deck lines works for calm waters, but they can work loose in waves. For years I used Paddle Britches, a product made by Northwater. But a couple of years ago they came out with a new product called Paddle Scabbards that work much better for me. The Paddle Britches attach with Velcro which I found could tear away fairly easily. The Paddle Scabbards you must attach to your perimeter line. (Untie the lines, thread through the scabbard loops, then re-tie.) Plus the Scabbards can be unclipped and folded open so you can easily access your hatches. A really nice upgrade for touring kayaks. You can see the original Britches, the Velcro Britches and the Scabbards here: northwater.com/collections/paddle-leashes.
One thing I found however, is that in transport the Scabbards tend to flop around a bit. But I solved that by pushing the scabbards all the way to the end so that their tips are up under the perimeter line. Then when inserting the paddle I pull them back down into the proper position, lightly covering my hatch.
The Britches and Scabbards hold the ends of your split paddle. The blades of the paddle are secured under your bungees. I found pulling them in and out tended to scratch up my deck, so I add some minicell foam to the deck underneath the bungees. That not only eliminated the scratches but the tooth of the minicell holds the slick paddle blades (and anything else you want to stick under your bungees) much better.
