Water Mat Suggestions

[SilentSeven]

Thanks Ryan....Trip. Yeah, I totally get it now.

[MN Ryan]

Yeah, no problem. The first time we hauled it out, I thought, "This shouldn't be a big deal." Ha. I'm sure it was fun for otherst to watch.

[CHassmann]

We have had a Big Joe from Sam's Club for a few years now. It isn't too difficult to roll up and it's in decent condition yet.
https://www.samsclub.com/p/floating-...=plp_product_1

[davefreem]

We have been using an inflatable pad from sea choice for our 3rd year, its used almost every weekend, its 11'x6' and both my kids love it, when its deflated it fits in ski locker, and I think I paid under $200.00. I work for a dealer and can get it shipped to you

[trip33]

I made the switch to inflatable this year. We got the big one by Mission Boat Gear with the back rests. It is still a bit of a hassle to setup and break down but I would say easier or at least equal to the foam ones especially if you go with one of the smaller rectangle ones. This one takes about 10 min to inflate with the electric pump and another 10 to deflate and fold up. You still have to store it on the platform but it is lower profile than a rolled up mat once it is deflated. It has some nice attachment points that you can use to connect it to the lifting rings when you have it stored on the platform and we also figured out that once inflated the attachment points are positioned so that you can connect it to the lifting rings facing the platform so that it forms a stadium seating configuration which is nice. It is still quite pricey though.

[trip33]

Here is a pic

[Tigerxj]

I searched around for a while on this last year, because these inflatable mats can be pretty expensive.
ended up with the 7x7 "Weekender" dock from Retrospec. It takes about 20mins with an electric pump to get it to 10-12 PSI, much less to deflate. Its pretty easy to roll up on the swim platform because it isnt huge. Kids love it. Rolled up it fits easily in the locker of the GS20. We went with inflatable because wife was scare of kids getting stuck under a foam mat. twice we have seen kids, once with a life jacket, and once without, slip under the mat, and float up under it. because the foam mats are not very rigid, they were essentially stuck under it. The inflatable mat is rigid. Like if I had 4 guys we could pick it up with my wife and a cooler sitting on it. So while a kid could go under it, they arent going to bouy up in the middle of it like we saw twice with the foam mats. The other issue I have with foam is we were at a birthday party on the lake. the boys were wrestling on the mat, and one of them pinned the other, right in front of me. I didn't recognize the issue at first, but their weight pushed the center of the mat down (again not rigid) and it filled with water, and the kid was literally face down in the water, on top of the mat, with another kid on top of him. Fortunately we realized what was happening and pulled them off, but it kind of freaked me out.

The only issue we have had with this mat, and I dont know if its a cost/quality issue, is we left it out for about 4 weeks this summer, and i guess the heat from the sun caused it to bow up the edges. that is probably operator error. Now that we have used it for a year, and really liked it, I may splurge on one of the mission or bote brand floats.

https://www.amazon.com/Retrospec-Wee...01373452&psc=1

[SkiTundra]

We had a 6x18 Rubber Docky that floated off last year. We had it for two years and overall everyone liked it. Rolling up was a PITA due to stiffness and weight so we left it out and tucked it up under our dock to protect it from the sun and ducks who I think thought it the best crapper on the lake.

We are getting a DetalleGo to replace it. FWIW, I believe this, Gymax and Goplus are all identical. They use the same photos and descriptions are similar like identical weight, etc.