[Paddlewise] Sea Seat

Someone e-mailed me:
Dear Matt/Cam,
    What ever happened to the Sea Seat?  How can I get one?  The Pacific
Canoe Base phone number is no longer good...

I responded:
I don't know. I think the University of Victoria was behind it originally.
You might try them. I was never a fan. Too long to inflate and hard to get
on and stay on. I'd suggest you look for a small one man lightweight rubber
raft. I found a child's toy raft worked better than the sea seat when I did
some tests many years ago. It was lots cheaper as well. Once I saw a pool
demonstration that I think John Dowd had something to do with organizing
where the demo of the sea seat failed because the button weld in the middle
(that gave it the seat shape) failed so that all one was left with was a big
floppy balloon. Also the sea seat was much harder to use for self reentry
than a paddle float and took something like four minutes to inflate compared
with 30 sec. for a paddle float.

What is your purpose for wanting one? To me it seamed that its major benefit
was that it fit into a pouch on the back of a (made for it) PFD. That way if
you went overboard on a sailboat or powerboat it would still be with you (if
you wore a PFD anyhow). If one still had a kayak with them that was floating
and rescueable the sea seat seemed to have nothing but disadvantages
compared to the paddlefloat. I once tried to develop a garment that would
blow up an air mattress as an integral part of the back. (or maybe something
like the Michelin man suit) so that someone overboard could be floated
mostly clear of the cold water. Navy tests back then seemed to indicate that
nearly everyone would survived a long time it they could get there head and
trunk out of the cold water even if they were still wet and in the wind.  I
imagine the sea sock was developed for the same reason by Univ. of Victoria
hypothermia researchers.

 I'll ask on Paddlewise if anyone knows if they are still available
anywhere.

Matt Broze
www.marinerkayaks.com
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