Updated 3/18

A pretty straightforward way to maximize the outfitting in your Jackson Kayak. What you’ll need: An electric drill and medium sized drill bit. As they say, you have to break some eggs to make an omelet. In this case we’re drilling holes in a whitewater kayak. Don’t worry, it will still float.

Stephen Wright is the pioneer of this process, it’s not for all body types but works wonders for some. Maybe it’s a short person thing?

It’s also worth noting that if you have problems with your legs falling asleep, raising the hip pads up and moving them backwards can cure the problem. At least for me.

It’s worth noting that the 2010 Crosslink Jackson boats come outfitted in a very similar matter, and linear less so. The time to put in extra holes greatly increases production cost, and I’d rather do it myself than pay more for a boat.

The goal is to get the hip pads mounted higher so they help hold you in the boat. I found for my body they were more “butt pads” than hip pads with the factory setup. To do this we’ll add one hole to the cockpit rim, behind the seat mounting tab. Then we’ll re-route the hip pad webbing through the large backband hole in front of the seat, back behind the seat attachment point and up through the new hole to the buckle. . See the image below for hole placement.

Note the new image, this is how I am currently doing my outfitting. I just use the backband hole that is already in front instead of drilling a new one. Works just as well and saves some energy.

When using the drill it’s possible to go through both layers of plastic and end up with a hole through outside cockpit rim. Bad news! To avoid this use a high rpm on the drill and light pressure, going slow. If you press down too hard on the drill, it’s likely to bite in and start pulling it’s own way through, possibly through that second layer. I make the front hole horizontal and the rear vertical. I’d imagine both could be vertical, but be sure the rear one is, otherwise it will be tough to get the webbing through.

I was just on the phone with Stephen, and he mentioned accidentally drilling a little too far and putting a small hole in the cockpit rim of a boat. A sure fire way to avoid this is going to your hardware store and buying a small bit-stop. You attach it to the bit and it will block it from going too deep. It shouldn’t cost more than a few bucks and is very safe. An even cheaper, but not as reliable option, is to just put a lot of masking tape around the bit where you want it to stop at, aka 1/4″ down from the tip, wrap the bit with many layers of tape so you don’t put that hole too deep!

To feed the strap through, push it through the front hole first, then pull enough through to loop it behind the seat attachment. Once you have it behind the seat, go up through the last hole and then back down to the buckle. I put my backband above the hip pad mounting webbing. Tighten it up! (older style with two holes, no need for both)

How much of a difference? Check out the side view, the hip pads sit slightly higher than the rim of the cockpit.

Since I had the drill out, I decided to do more while I was at it. People did this fairly often on the Dagger boats when they had the heavy rotomolded seat/front pillar combo. I just did it to the bulkhead in my Hero. It probably only saves an ounce per brace, and takes too long to make it worthwhile to do at the factory, but if you have the free time, why not?