My Best Purchase

Bonus Blog!

While rowing on a sliding seat delivers a full body workout, some might wonder what challenges are inherent in a carpal tunnel-like scenario such as this. Let’s break it down. As of tonight, Day 19, we’ve clicked off 642 miles. If we took 4 mph as an average, that’s 180 hours in the seat. Adding 70 or so locks to the mix at, say, 15 minutes average per lock, we’ll add about 17 more ‘sitting’ hours … maybe 200 total hours to date with two days to go.

Even though the hands, wrists, arms, shoulders, hips and legs are all moving with every stroke, the derriere sits. This concentration of weight and focal energy led me to the best purchase of this adventure.

The bare sliding seat, standard on the boat. This hardwood seat of elegant craftsmanship features slightly ‘dished’ halves that would comfortably accommodate the posterior of an Olympic balance beam medalist. Sadly, as I am a bit of a ‘wide body,’ my backside simply overwhelms this seat pan … and after an hour or two, pain ensues. Towels, shorts, or thin cushions are similarly compressed after a while. A solution needed to be found if long distance rowing was to be pursued. (Sorry for the passive verbs.)

I turned to the long-distance trucker community. Who knows more about ‘active sitting’ than these people? Their answer? The Dura-Max.

This cushion did indeed extend ‘time in the seat’ to unimagined lengths. Up until Monday, July 17, it was ‘the answer’ to fanny fatigue. Taking time to stretch every few hours was still imperative, and the Dura Max, while not ‘plush’ or ‘luxuriant,’ nevertheless represented a quantum leap over all other experiments. Yet, could there be more?

But then, on Monday, July 17, at the town dock adjacent to the Fonda exit of the New York State Thruway, I saw it: across the road, a retail store dedicated to … truckers! My people! No strangers to pain!

I gimped across the road hoping to find a way to augment my tiring Dura Max. I’m sure it was as tired of me as I was of it; we both needed help, a kind of mediator to bring each of us back to our best selves.

On a low shelf I found ‘Black/Noire siege angulaire, bulles massent la region lombaire du dos!’ This translates, I think, to ‘Comfort Bubble Wedge’ ..  and to success, placed on top of the Dura Max which is itself draped over the wooden seat pan, ‘siege angulaire’ adds just the little tad of extra buoyancy I’d been needing … the two cushions work in silent but agreeable harmony, and my seat pain issues have now been subordinated to my creaky neck, which is tiring of peeking around to see where I’m going.

So my $19.95 gamble on a Comfort Bubble has paid off handsomely; now I don’t have to have the buns of an Olympic gymnast to be comfy in my boat!