Deluxe Inflatable Seat

This is a very versatile inflatable seat that we use a lot! By saying "a lot", I don't mean just that we use our Sea Eagle 385FT kayak a lot – I mean we use these seats in just about every other inflatable kayak that we have or have had. Even though at the moment we have only one Sea Eagle kayak, we have four of these seats since we use them in our other inflatable kayaks. And they can be used with at least a half dozen of Sea Eagle’s boating products, including paddleboards. Note that if you are considering getting an SE330 or SE370 Sport Kayak, I would get these deluxe seats instead of the basic "SEC" seats.

The seat design has a few excellent features:

1. The inflatable part is inside a canvas type of a covering which gives it good protection (although the covering adds a slight bit of weight).
2. The seat-back-to-seat-bottom straps allow it to be a "stand alone" seat. In other words, it does not need D-rings on the kayak to be usable. This feature allows you to use it in basically any inflatable kayak and also lets you put it exactly where you want to regardless of where any D-rings are or aren’t. And if you do have D-rings on the boat, you still have the option to unhook the straps from the seat base and hook them into D-rings if you prefer.
3. It gives very good back support, better than about all the other seats I have used in inflatable kayaks.
4. They set you up off of the bottom of the kayak several inches, which should keep you drier.

Here's one tip for optimum use of the seat. If you inflate the base of the seat up really full and tight, it tends to be a bit less comfortable, just a bit like it is trying to push you off or at least may seem to let you slide a little this way or that way. But if you let just a little air out, then the seat surface where you sit is more like a concave downward shape which better fits the shape of that human part that sits on it... and it holds you in place better (as compared to being convex or rounded upward from being so tightly full of air).

Another couple tips... they are easy to inflate even by mouth, so if someone else is pumping up the inflatable boat, another person can blow up the seats in the meantime with maybe just 7 or 8 breaths each. If for some reason you think that you are sitting up a bit too high (i.e., maybe if it makes you feel a little less stable in some non-Sea Eagle kayaks), you can let maybe a third to two thirds of the air out of the seat base to lower yourself, and the seat back still is strong and stable.

Possibly the only reason I didn't give it a 10 has to do w/ the way we use inflatable kayaks sometimes. One of the nice features of inflatable kayaks is that they can be very comfortable, almost like a couch on the water, and yet still have decent paddling performance. When we are not in a hurry and want to relax (like getting a little "nature therapy"), sometimes we kick our feet out and slouch back almost like being on a recliner. If I do this for an extended period of time, it apparently puts the seat valve into a strange/cocked position or something, because it will very gradually bleed out air and pretty soon the seat bottom will be noticeably deflated. (I do NOT notice this happening when I am sitting upright in a normal paddling position.) So if this happens to your seat, it may not necessarily mean there is something "wrong" with the seat – it may just mean that the seat was not really meant/designed to be used in such an odd way. Happy Paddling!