I’m a kayak fisherman with an sit-on-top Emotion fisherman kayak. I have a cheap seat and I have tried a $100.00 seat before which I took back. While I fish my lower back gets sore I’m sure a more expensive seat will make my butt comfortable but my back needs support, maybe its the way I sit but I usually shove something behind my lower back to act like a lumbar in a car seat for relief. I’m 6’0 tall 215 lbs thick athletic build. All the seats I look at don’t seem to have any kind of lower back support. I usually quit fishing because my back gets so tired so any kind of advice would help. Thanks for your answers.
look for a seat with a high back to give you more support.
As you’re finding out, a lot of the seat backs produced these days don’t give a lot of real support. The typical seats I’ve seen have a high back and are set up in a reclined position. This might feel nice at first, but it’s a horrible position for paddling and it’ll eventually give you a sore back.
Ideally you’ll be sitting up straight with good posture, and you’ll have a back rest that lets you do this. It doesn’t necessarily have to come up very high (some back rests in sit-inside touring kayaks only come up 3″ or so on the lower back). You might try first adjusting your existing back rest so it’s in a more upright position. But if it’s not firm enough, you may need something else. If you’re handy, you might be able to carve a solid backrest out of minicell foam (available at http://www.northshoreinc.com/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=11 ).