I bought one of these at Cascade River Supply in Boise last week.
I'm excited to have a sweet river couch. However, I thought it would be fun to try and turn this into a boat. With a little bit of work I thought this could turn into a fun R2 paddle boat. I have a friend who took one down the Main Payette last summer. He said it was essentially like swimming the whole river. Most of the YouTube videos I've seen show them dumping the boaters out the front.
I told Cameron who works at Cascade River Supply (aka Cascade Outfitters) about the thwart idea. He asked Chris Frazee the president of Maravia about it and Chris found me the biggest thwart I've ever seen. It is the exact same size as the seat cushion on the couch. They let me have it for $50. I bought 4 Maravia thwart knuckles, some glue, MEK, and here is the result.
My thanks to Chris and Cameron. It makes a great ottoman too. Now I just need to wait until the weather gets warm enough to test it on the water.
I bought one of these a last year, and I can still say, by far the best purchase I've made! I give it credit to saving everything after this pop as well.
I got this on the water today. In case you were wondering if the thwart idea was a success, .... it was awesome!
Here's to a successful maiden voyage. Next stop, the Main Payette!
No, the kids were having difficulty. My kids don't know how to paddle much yet. On our raft, I do almost all the rowing. We are going to put the thwarts into the my old 14' and do some day runs this season as a paddle crew.
As far as paddling goes, I think it moves better sideways. The best way I found was to straddle the middle tube and lean out over the arm rest and paddle. It wasn't like paddling a SUP but we were able to scoot around.
Looks like fun regardless. I'm curious to see what you do on the river. Still going to put it on the back of the raft? Or ride it solo now that it has the thwart?
After a lot of help and a little work, this project finally reached its culmination. My friend Paul and I R2ed it down the river today. Aire Couch....meet the Payette River. https://youtu.be/qmvMEh1Fdis
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