Spent the last couple weeks buying and trying every single brand of commercially available footbrace to replace our dwindling supply of the now discontinued Harmony Slidelocks. I’ve been pretty salty about this whole thing because for all of their disadvantages the slide locks were light, easy to install, and had a unique geometry that works perfectly with our boats.
Most of the tracks I purchased weren’t even close to working but ultimately I’ve decided to switch the Sea-Lect Designs system because 1) I can actually make it work, 2) their stuff is really well-built and comes with loads of cool options, and 3) they carry a bunch of other stuff that I want to stock in our store.
The cool thing about the Sea-Lect stuff is that it’s modular and comes with a whole bunch of different options including 3 different toe pad styles, a height adjuster, and optional rudder control, all of which can be retrofitted.
It took a few days to come up with a system that I feel confident will let beginners install perfectly aligned T nuts (absolutely critical and has to be done perfectly, still considering T bolts instead) then yesterday we installed every toe pad at every height and sat in the boat about two dozen times to feel the fit and check for issues.
There’s still things I miss about the old system but on balance I think the Sea-Lect stuff makes up for that with increased options, and I’m excited to explore the possibility of having a custom toe pad built for those of us in the skinboat community who are regularly running 15 to 25° gunnels.
Also not having to deal with Confluence anymore should have a positive effect on my blood pressure. If you work in paddlesports retail you know exactly what I’m talking about here.
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