Ahh, the butt-pad from heaven! I realize that sounds silly, but this is one awesome piece of gear, even if it does fall into a little bit of a luxury item category. That said, this thing is seriously worth a slight sacrifice in pack space for the amount of comfort it brings to the party.
Along the same lines as the compressible pillow, the review for this is going to be a little on the sparse side. This has nothing to do with it being a Therm-a-rest product. This is just one of those things that I think people are either on the fence about or have never heard/thought about for their pack.
The greatest folding cushion ever made!
Therm-A-Rest Specs:
- Open size 16 x 13 inches
- Compressed size 3 x 3 x 13 inches
- 0.2 pounds
- Puncture-proof closed cell foam
- Accordion-style design makes for compact storage
- integrated bungee loop to keep your seat compacted
This thing is super light and can compact down to a size that’s really easy to travel with. The best part is that because it’s an accordion style folding seat you cat easily fold it up to fit whatever way you need it to. If you need to kneel in a creek you can easily lash it to your pack to dry off while out on a hike.
This cushion is even great to take to sporting events to use as a seat cushion while watching your kids sporting events. That said, I always have this folding seat cushion in my backpack. On a couple of hiking to fishing trips I’ve used the straps on my backpack to secure it to the outside of the pack, but you are 99% guaranteed that I have this on me when I’m outdoors.
I’ve used this thing to bribe my sons into letting me fish just a little longer. I’m not below using bribery to get a couple of more casts out on the water! Typically on longer hikes with the boys, which would be in the 2 to 3 mile “easy range” or the 0.75 to 1 mile “difficult” I will use this seat cushion as a bribery token as well. I think that it’s the satisfaction of getting to use something “of Dad’s” but I also think there is a comfort factor involved as well.
Using the Z Seat while on a hike at Petit Jean State Park.
I don’t think that you have to get the model with the eyelet hole built in because a rubber band would work just as well and it’s a great way to keep some rubber bands in your pack when backpacking. However, the model I bought has the built-in stretch rope and I really like it. You don’t have to worry about it breaking, because if/when it does you can just replace it with a hair loop. Granted my wife has a ton of these all over the house…
All-in-all this really is a great piece of gear that won’t set you back that much money. It’s on the top of my list of comfort items that I will make room for because it has so many uses. Those uses aren’t just when out hiking, backpacking, or fishing either!