I want a seat belt for my project 45 so I don't have to be so tight in it when not playboating. Could someone who uses or has used a seat belt please reccomend a way to make the safest possible seatbelt. I have a bomber handroll and would only use it for easy playboating.

I've seen a couple of retrofits of the DragoRossi system, but it only works if you have a plastic seat. Those foam jobs just won't work.

I used to use a seatbelt a few years ago and really felt confident about the quick release systems found on many wave skis. I actually ordered my through a wave ski company in Florida (can't remember which one). You might do some research in that direction.

Seen lots of ratchet back bands, and even used one myself, but it's not as easy to release under tention.

Good luck.

I've been paddling my playboat with a lap belt for the last 4 or 5 years. I really like the system I have but have to point out to everybody that it's really not safe to fix your self in your boat in any way.

However since the new rachet systems have come on the market it is possible to crank them up so tight that you can't get out of the boat either. C1 paddlers have been using quick release straps for years without problems you just have to realize that it will take longer to get out of your kayak (and we are all just between swims )

I use a 50mm quick release buckle (the same as on a QR harness on a life jacket) with some seatbelt webbing from a junkyard. Sew the buckle to a little less than half the webbing that you need, cut the end of the webbing that you want to pass through the buckle and melt it so that it goes through easy (you don't want it to catch on the way out do you). Bolt the webbing on each side of the seat which means you have to take the seat out of the boat, the hard part. Use washers on the screws so that the pressure doesn't pull the screws through the plastic and double the webbing at the hole and melt the holes through the webbing. Putting the seat back in is usually a lot of fun as well. If you want to paddle the boat without the belt then you will have to add a couple of bits of elastic so that you can get the straps out of the way.

Ratchets will not always quick release so don't use them for a lap belt

Remember that a lap belt is never to be used by an inexperienced boater, and that being able to hand roll is no mark of being an expert!

Be safe out on the river,

Neil

www.swiftwaterrescue.at

Thanks a lot for taking so much time to explain your lap belt. I have one question though, can you get it tight enough on you to improve inverted tricks. I know that a ratchet gets very tight. I like the idea of using a quick release buckle. It would be very easy to get out of. I found scuba diving weight belts online, I think that they are the same thing as the life jacket quck release buckles.

Heres one I found
www.scuba.com/shop/product.asp_Category_154_page_2_recs_10

If you make one, I'd avoid the ratchets. You could use a q r buckle like on a PFD, or just find an airplane seatbelt. That would be one of the quickest releasing devices I could think of and it wouldn't jam. I don't know about how tight you can get it... Lots of people are starting to sell these as fashionable belts. You could use one of those as your lap belt.

Ive got a velcro lap belt in my c1 squirt which helps hold my arse down especially when upside down or cartwheeling etc it was quite cheap easy to fit ive added a toggle to the top release end with bright cord just incase.

If you do fit one practise releasing it upisde down on the flat with friends near by or a pool i used chest harnesses in my old spanishfly which also worked quite well

Can someone explain what a seatbelt for a kayak is and what its used for?

Its for holding your arse to the seat so you do not move around in you boat when playing very popular with many freestylers n surf boaters to get the most out of there kayaks or canoes

ah, so its like having reallly tight outfitting except you cant get out. How do you get out?

Undo the Seatbelt. Either like ratchets on your backband, or like an airplane seatbelt. Anyway, I'm gonna start by getting a quick release mechanism but may move to ratchet after a while. I'll post pics when I finally get around to it.

cool. Does it really help your control of the boat or would it only be helpful for finetuning big wave moves?

It's just a way of getting really tight outfitting. It helps everything, like good outfitting does. I am mainly getting it to get bigger loops, but it will help every trick. Spinning, Cartwheeling whatever.

A Lap belt can be used to improve your playboating if you feel that your butt is coming off the seat when your doing moves. If you don't have this problem then you don't need one. Understand that using a lap belt permentanly attaches you to your boat until you decide to undo the belt.

As I said before DO NOT USE RATCHETS FOR A LAP BELT!!!

It's not big, it's not clever, and it's definatley not funny when they decide not to come undone. Working as a Snowboard Instructor I've had lots of rachet systems get stuck and take five minutes to undo with a screwdriver on the slopes. At least there you can sit around and work on your tan. Not the case if you just happen to be underwater at the time. I'm not going to trust my life to a complicated mechanical device releasing at the touch of a button. Or not as the case may be.

Neil

www.swiftwaterrescue.at

a link to some piccys of my lap belt in a old squirt which ive converted to c1 playak.com/galleries.php?gid=261&sv=0

Im curious about lapbelts? What would be the purpose of having one?

a lap belt adds another step to the process of getting out of your boat when you need to.
It completely elliminates the option of goind a "hands free" wet exit

I agree about NOT using ratches for a lap system. Those things fail all the time.

Anything that has to be fed through a device, has to feed back out of the device to release. EVEN THE RESCUE VEST SYSTEMS use this principle. There is a very high risk of the system binding and not releasing.

If you decide to take the added chance (adding lots of extra risk to whitewater) I would HIGHLY recommend some kind of system that INSTANTLY releases when you pull on the release mechanism.

Airplane seat belt buckles are great.

WaveSki seat belts are great

Rescue harness systems are more dangerous

Ratches are even more dangerous than those!!!

The DragoRossi system holds you in like a seat belt, but you can get out of it much faster. (but it can only be retrofitted on plastic seats, and not foam seats, AND they are designed for teh molded in knee brace systems, not the aggressive F.A.T. style systems)

lots of options that will make this decision of yours more dangerous.
BE CAREFULL!!!!

i don't know about using something like an airplane seat belt. it would be hard to get, heavy and not designed for water use. Over time, rusting could stop it from working. I think my diving weight belt will be great because it is designed for water and will not rust.

airplane belts are usually aluminum and stainless so won't really rust.
I know a few C1 boats that hve them, and they release really really well.

here's a juicy tidbit for you (you can decide if it's true or not)
someone told me that airplane seatbelt buckles are designed to be easy enough to release when you consider the possible injuries of someone in an airplane crash, frozen fingers, missing fingers, totally burned hands.
Gross!

nice! gotta love emoticons, If you can get hold of one from a plane quite alot of guys in the uk chipped together they needed to buy 20 or so belts to get them at a decent price anything under and the companies werent interested!

I will stick to my velcro ski belt for now

yea im restoring a 1968 chevelle SS and I have about 4 old airplane liike seatbelts which i might consider putting in my boat. But wat would a belt do???

as it says above if your moving around in your ie your arse is lifting off the seat then the belt will hold you down so you do not move!

BUT as said before you have to release it before coming out of your boat so you have to pop your deck then release your belt then get out.

So if you do fit one get used to exiting it under water in a pool session then on a river just to makesure it works always have a friend near by to rescue you and help out

Well, I put my seatbelt in. I doubled back the webbing and burnind holes through. Then poked the first bolt through were the seat is. It seems good for looping, but makes cartwheels different.