Currently, for sit-kitesurfing, sit-wakeboarding, and sit-skiing, various sizes of seats are available on the market. Manufacturer Tessier currently offers six different sizes of seats. The downside is that companies focusing on teaching sports like sit-skiing, sit-wakeboarding, or sit-kitesurfing need to have all these seat sizes in stock to accommodate people with different body types. We also experience this problem during our sports events.
During a sports day, we need to bring different sizes of seats for various participants. These need to be regularly swapped to ensure everyone has the right-sized seat to hit the water. Besides being time-consuming, the seats are quite expensive. We understand that many kitesurfing schools and wakeboard parks hesitate to include sit-kitesurfing in their lesson packages. In addition to the already expensive sit-kiteboards, compared to regular kiteboards, they also have to stock six seats. On top of that, a lot of lesson time is lost due to constant adjustments. That’s why we came up with the following idea: an adjustable seat.
The adjustable seat we are designing can accommodate participants with different hip widths, going beyond what is currently available. In addition to the six different sizes offered by Tessier, this seat can become even narrower than the smallest size and slightly wider than the widest size. This means that the adjustable seat can serve the vast majority of sitting athletes.
By mounting the adjustable seat on the wake or kite frame, each participant can adjust the seat to the right size within seconds and get on the water. This saves a lot of time, conserves energy, and keeps the investment costs for kite schools, wakeboard parks, and sports clubs much lower.
What are the downsides of the adjustable seat? Due to the adjustment mechanism, the weight of the seat is significantly higher than a custom-made seat. Also, because of the moving parts, the stiffness is less. If a sports enthusiast frequently engages in sit-wakeboarding or -kiting, a custom-made seat is desirable, especially when you want to start jumping. However, for the beginning rider and for lessons, the adjustable seat is excellent!
The adjustable seat is being developed in collaboration with TU Delft and FieldLab. The talented and motivated TU students, Marinke Callens and Djemie Tuankotta, have graduated within our foundation on this topic. The prototypes derived from this collaboration are now being translated into production. We hope to try out the first units during our own sports events later this season!
We’ll keep you updated. Onwards and upwards!