As Eric said here we go again, and what he meant by that was we had an exhausting pro and con discussion about the blue foam a couple of months ago and what my purpose is. So I will keep this short. The blue foam is camping pad sleeping foam that I bought from Wal-Mart and is glued with contact cement. It runs from ½” thickness at the bow and stern to two inches thick at the cockpit and is 5” wide. I also used it for hip and kneepad braces making the thickness 2 ½” thick at those points, and also for back support. I believe this side floatation will make the kayak very easy to do self rescuing and very stable in the roughest of water by just putting water in it rather then taking it out and paddling to shore, submarine style. I will do the tests in the spring with pictures.

John