Shin/Leg Pads for riverboarding

Comment by Kevin Yount on January 29, 2012 at 3:01am

Fox and Thor both make great knee/shin combo pads. 

Comment by martyStecher martystecher on March 21, 2013 at 6:37pm

Hi terence.  I am planning to make up some new pads for this spring.  The ones I have been using are kids combo knee/shin guards, the kind that has outter plastic over foam all sewed to a cloth backing.  I cut off the straps.  I wear them under the suit.  I put the suit on and pull it up, then roll it down, insert the  pads and roll it back up.  they wrk great, but the knee pads are a little big and that causes tearing of the wet suit.  I used to repair the knees of the suits by adding oval patches with barge contact cement, but that caused weak areas at the edges of the patchs, so now I use many small pieces of neoprene suit material, small ovals and longer skinnier shapes to build up the area like on a ski racing sweater.  The idea being to add re-enforcement in a webbed pattern while maintaining even stretchability.

To make your own custom fit pads you can use free or cheap local materials.  The lid from you neighbors trash bin, neoprene from a dead suit and duct tape.  

There are major types of plastic, 2 part resin pastic (cd cases and kevlar kayak helmets) and thermoforming plastic: kayaks and trash cans.  

All thermoforming plastics can be re-shaped.  They all have a best temprature which falls between 250-400 degrees F  Just do not smoke it when heating.  

If you don't feel up to messing with that then you can use layers of youghurt cup plastic / foam  and duct tape.

Hope this helps,  contact me off line if you need help.  Cheerrs  marty

Comment by Phillip Kirkman on March 23, 2013 at 4:46am

Take the combo pads (I have a pair of 661 combo pad/plastic) and cut the straps off.  Buy a tube or two of AquaSeal or the equivalent neoprene glue.  Take your wetsuit stuff the legs with clothes or newspaper to realistically fill the legs.  I took some very fine sandpaper (following the glue instructions) and roughed up the neoprene and pads.  Apply a ton of glue, spread evenly.  Take pads put into place.  I used electric tape to wrap and hold the pads into place.  Let let sit for as long as the glue directs.  This will make your pads part of the suit and keep them there.  I will be re gluing the edges of mine this spring.  It will also make them the worst part of taking your suit off.  It creates a bottle neck at the ankle, but your suit won't get brutalized by rocks.  It's almost a 2 person job some days.  Colorado does have a few pointy rocks especially this year, good luck...

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