Inflatable seat pad for the old-style seat

I have read good things about the inflatable seat pads and, because I am now getting a sore backside and tingling in my legs attributable to spending too many hours pedaling my kayak, I am considering getting one. However I have the old style seats on my boats (the ones with two battens in the back). i currently use a closed cell foam pad under the seat but even with that I have determined that when I go kayaking I get a sore butt & tingly legs and when I do not go kayaking I don't! (It has taken years to draw this conclusion because there are so few weekends on which I don't go out kayaking, so I thought it was an age thing and not a kayaking thing, however a recent layoff of three or four weekends during which my legs returned to normal followed by more kayaking and more tingling have led to the inevitable conclusion that the cause is the pressure of soft Stobbo butt on hard Hobie hull...)

So two questions:
1. Anyone out there know if the inflatable seat pad will work with the older style seats or does it just apply to the newer ones?
2. Anyone have any thoughts on whether it will it help reduce my symptoms?

The best way I solved my problems was to purchase s plastic molded boat seat. Only the plastic seat no hardware. Cost about 10 dollars. The main problem I had was the tingley seat going to sleep. The little plastic pegs that holds the seat in place would place pressure on the muscle and in about three hours I would have to stop fishing to let the muscles recover. Now with the plastic molded seat I can fish for 8 or 9 hours without stopping. The pegs no longer are felt in the buttox. I know this did not answer the question you asked, but it has worked for me.

OH, I almost forgot, use still install the canvas Hobie seat with the pegs and then place the plastic seat on top of the canvas one. Works like a charm.

Good Luck

Works great! I've been using the old style seat back exclusively with i-comfort pads for over 5 years now and it makes a huge difference. IMO that's the best combo available. Here's an old link that still has a couple of pics showing. Let me know if you have any more questions on the conversion.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10141&p=52869&hilit

Roadrunner - In your pics there are two different seat backs... Is the bottom one the high-back style with the support "staves?" Is it still available? I'm interested in getting one... what is the proper designation for it?

Yes I understand Hobie no longer has these available, but you may find one on ebay or through a dealer who has old inventory. Fortunately I bought some a few years ago to use on all my boats.

Note, there were a few that had aluminum staves rather than fiberglass. These were recalled -- are easy to recognize by bending the seatback over your knee -- they stay bent and are no good. They are the only seat with fiberglass staves, no lumbar support, built through 2006. They usually came with a large removable accessory packs with bottles clipped to the seat back as shown here (top):.
Hobie also made a similar but differently shaped seat for their non-Mirage paddling boats. These are not interchangeable the Mirage boats. Good luck finding one!

If I have two of these seats will Hobie swap them out since they were recalled?

I suspect they would have liked to have heard from you about 8 years ago on this and since direct replacements are no longer available, I wouldn't be to optimistic. It never hurts to check though. I would suggest filing a warranty claim with your local dealer (include a picture showing the bent seat back) and see what happens! FYI, unfortunately, the current pegs are not compatible with your old pegs -- you'd have to adapt your old ones if you were to get new seats.

As I recall, this problem affected one batch of seats that was sent by mistake. By the time Hobie realized the error, some had gotten out. They corrected all the ones they could find years ago but had no idea of who had what.