big feet big butt

[hazardharry]

its time for a saddle in my canoe. i am 6'4" with sz14 foot. i got my feet snagged under my traditional canoe seat in a play and ruined my season. so now i am about to rip out the web seat for something safe. any big butts got a good set up they could post a picture of? i can't afford to buy the wrong thing for my canoe.

[Mike W.]

Make it wide. Narrow saddles hit a nerve & make you think your ankles hurt.

[TonyB]

Perception saddle??

[dwd58]

Mike W, what do you recommend for a wide saddle? I know the feeling of that nerve getting pinched. Never thought about a wider saddle. Any companies producing a good one?

[DougB]

Wides make a difference. I cut my saddle down the center, added 1" of foam, glued back together and recut the contours. Going from 8 to 9 wide is an improvement. It helps to have a high cut bandsaw to make a nice cut. My saddles are also 9" high. The extra hight is also important with long legs and feet

[TheKrikkitWars]

The other option is stretching, I'm 6'4" (ish), size 13 feet, 36" inseam and 200lb with big calves and thighs from cycling... with regular stretching, I can paddle my squirtboat with a 2" saddle, for up to an hour before it becomes uncomfortable, and my creekboat with a 5" saddle almost indefinately...

I find that footpeg position in terms of how much it makes you bend your knees and push you calves into your thighs, makes more of a difference than saddle height to comfort in my OC1's (prelude is at 7", CU-fly is at 1'0")

[Mike W.]

All of my saddles are 10" wide now. This makes getting my feet out of the Big EZ & slalom boat pretty tricky though. Hope I never have to swim.

[kaz]

Mike W,
I suggest tapering that saddle. Keep it wide at top, cut a wedge out so it's only, let's say, 6" wide at the bottom. Plenty of room for the feet this way, if you know what I mean.

[Mike W.]

I have tapered the saddles in most of my boats & the bottom of the hip-pads in the Big EZ to help funnel my feet out. This makes it easier to get out, allows my feet to be under me & have better alignment in the boat & saves $$ on foam. The Nova has Mad Dog hip pads that don't give. It would probably help if I could stand a saddle lower than 7", but that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[hazardharry]

after running 30+ miles of whitewater this weekend the seat collapsed after cracking my ash gunnels upta dead rvier @2400cfs. i got to see many saddles and thought they all were to narrow for a guy with bigstones. i like the idea of cutting and widening a stock saddle. but i know what i want to make i just need to tool up and get the foam. winter is coming and i need something to do. i'm thinking cover a pile of sand with plastic sit my butt down to get a measure

[hazardharry]

yup i just blow the balance of my $rent$ and bought n NRS saddle. i should have it set up for next weekend test before the next dead river trip. now to think about hip pads.

[busterblue]

Just curious. What's the NRS Saddle? Is there a picture online?

[hazardharry]

padz canoe saddle at nrs web site.

[hazardharry]

i feel like the kid that saved his money to buy the secret spy ring in the back of a comiic book ...NRS shoulb be embarassed for selling this tiny block of foam as a saddle! $75 is a weeks worth of food at my house. just needed to vent out and say i bought the wrong saddle and should have made my own from scratch.

[ian123]

You get what you pay for and foam is pretty expensive. You could probably return it.