Thigh Braces

Braces to the outside of your thigh is the single biggest improvement that you can make to the stock outfitting of a play boat. As you make an aggressive reach with your paddle (like for a stern squirt or a cartwheel) your torso will twist and the leg on the opposing side of your body will attempt to go straight. These blocks will keep your lower body from shifting when your upper body is wound up. The end result is more torque. Also when you are relaxing, your knees can fall straight down on to the pads reducing fatigue.

Despite one manufactures claim to have invented this concept, these have been used in slalom boats for years. I first saw them in Eric Jacksons slalom boat in 1997. That same year squirt boaters like Mark Travis started using them and play boaters soon followed.

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There are two ways to do these pads. if you have a rounded hull you want to glue a small pad up higher along the chine high enough to be snug against your knee. This is adequate for most people. The pictures above are more appropriate to lower volume cockpit area. The dimensions of the blocks used in these pictures are a 3" piece cut 9" across and 5" high. The cut on the top corner is to ease entry and exit of your ankles. For this cut about 2" down and 3" across. The only advantage of making the block wide like you see above is to inhibit them from ripping out. A bigger surface area to glue will make them stronger. If you wish to make your blocks less likely to obstruct exit then cut much narrower and align with the outside edge of the boat along the side wall.

Now with spud boat cockpits being quite deep you will not need to glue off of the bottom of the boat and will glue onto the side wall.

Below is a picture of the desired shape which is basically an upside down hip pad. To achieve the fit sit in the boat and place the pad in place on the outdside of your knee and then trace with a heavy pen. Get out of the boat and glue in place on the side wall where your trace has indicated. Then sand for a fine tuned fit.