I have a Jackson all star and I was wonder if any one takes the foot bag out or if ever one leaves it in ? if you take it out do you find you can get further forward or not ?

cheers Dan

I have the same kayak. Here's what I did to outfit/set it up (the 2nd time, after learning from my mistakes the first time)

- First, move the happy feet out of the way (don't pull them out of your kayak altogether, otherwise it'll be hard to get them back in.
- Get in your kayak and adjust the seat to where you want it. Doing it without the foot bag lets you know exactly how much room you have in the kayak. Doing this I got my seat about 2inches forward than what it was before (which I thought was as far as it would go). Basically figure out your seat position first.
- Now you have to setup your happy feet well so that you can still fit in with them in there. Put some air in the bag first, then reach up and use your hands to make pockets for your feet. Try and move a heap of the beans out of the way if necessary and make some big pockets. Then sit in your kayak and try to get your feet in the big pockets. Every time I tried to get in I kept ruining the pockets with my feet, so it took a few goes.
- Finally, suck out all the air. Once I've taken out as much air as I can, I'll usually hold my nose and just start swallowing air to get more out for a minute or two. The more air you get out, the firmer and less give the bag will have, and the less likely they are to lose shape.

So that's my long answer, my short answer is; no you don't get extra room. You just need to fix up the footbag