NICE! That looks perfect. Just the right amount of air and everything.
I see sooooo many that people do NOT inflate right.
Here is one (I think it is the one Costco sales) that is definitely under inflated.
In a tube you CAN lean back & scuba fin, but not on a pontoon. As you know, the water is mid calf. Scooping is the only way.
NICE WATERS also
Hey Pon,
I did indeed end up buying the ODC 616. I’ve attached a few pics below… Two are of me (stuggling to rethread the line that somehow fell back through the loops :p), one is of another guy that was with us and that wanted to try it out…
Thanks for the kicking tip flygoddess, I’ll give it a shot. I always thought you were *supposed *to “lean back and flutter like a swimmer” (or, move your leg from bent (90 deg) to straight out (0/180 deg)) though :p…
As far as cotton goes, I thought it was breathable as well… Just that it sucks when it gets wet (e.g. when you sweat) because you get cold when it dries, or something like that… Anyways, my waders definately aren’t the breathable kind, they’re just the plain regular rubber kind($60 or $80 CAD at Canadian Tire (/Wal Mart))… I was looking at scuba fins and “Force Fins” but so far I’ve just been trying to work with what I had lying around the house to get a feel for the sport (e.g. the cheapest waders money can buy and some “flippers” that I cut up and duct taped to the bottom of the waders :p)… I might invest in a better set-up down the road but for now my ghetto outfit seems to be working half-decently.
I didn’t even think about sewing up the pontoons as being an option Pon, but maybe I’ll try that… There’s another less drastic thing to try just to see lowering your position will improve your leg propulsion. **Maybe deflate the pontoons as much as you can get away with so they are not TOO soft in the cold water. Then add as much weight as LOW as you can to make the unit ride as low as you can. If you lower to the point where the metal frame is touching the water, your pedaling position will improve. But it will be difficult to pedal because the frame will be dragging in the water, and your seat bottom will still be maybe 3 inches above. This new position 3" above the surface may not be low enough and you will have a much harder time pedalling because of the water resistance. So you wouldn’t gain anything. ** I was going to cut four tubes (or so) of the frame, drill a couple of holes beside each cut, stick an approx. 3-6 in. piece of slightly-smaller-guage pipe (w/ holes drilled at each end) in each tube, and then just stick some bolts through the holes (basically just “extend” the frame so that the seat is a few inches lower), but maybe I’ll try making the nylon sleeves smaller first… **Yes, I can see where this would lower the position. And you can return everything to original position, if necessary. Your frame would also be a little wider and that would put more leverage on the welds where the nipples for the metal seat support is. The tubing is thin compared to most American made units in my experience. Also, a new way to fasten the pontoons might have to be found, since the lower horizontal cross brace would be in a different position.
Good luck,
Pon**** **
Cheers,
Rob
Thanks Pon and flygoddess,
That’s Beautiful B.C. for you [;)]
Partially inflating the tubes (so that they look like the pic in flygoddesses post, above) sounds like a good way to get an idea as to how a lowered frame would feel, and I’m going to try that a.s.a.p (hopefully this weekend!). Not only is it a good way to get a feel for how it would be like to sit lower on the water (w/ fully inflated tubes), I figure it’ll keep the resale value of this thing high, should I have to do that… Cheers!
If I like the feel (which I’m sure I will), I’ll proceed with the hack job: I figure I can get to w/i 3 in. of the water using a combination of frame extension and seat lowering (the seat has 1+ in. plastic “walls” attached to the bottom, which can likely be Xacto knifed off with some effort), compared to the ~ 6+ in. I’m sitting at right now…
Thanks again for all the helpful advice,
Rob
Zabber, keep you toons inflated like they’re supposed to be.
Don’t mess with lowering anything frame wise. It’s not good advice. The frame is built by the factory that way for a specific purpose.
Letting air out of the bladders is the worst advice you could get. It will lower your capacity, your stability is compromised, it’ll mess with your tractability, and in extreme cases fold up on you in rough weather. FG’s picture of that gal she posted, is how NOT to do it. That pontoon is way underinflated.
With you sitting in your seat, when you kick, you’ll get some of your fins out of the water and make noise and a small splash. So what. The more you are on the water, the easier it will get and you’ll get the hang of it quickly. Where you sit now is optimum for “less is more”. Fins, feet and lower legs in the water is much easier than lowering yourself to just above the surface with much more of your lower extremities having to cut thru water resistance.
When propelling yourself, scoop the water with your fins. Bring you legs back one at a time and scoop away from you. Always take oars too. If you get tired, or have to fight the elements, oars will get you back safely. Even though I have a motor, I always take my oars. Besides, I like rowing.
Zabber, keep you toons inflated like they’re supposed to be.
Don’t mess with lowering anything frame wise. It’s not good advice. The frame is built by the factory that way for a specific purpose.
Letting air out of the bladders is the worst advice you could get. It will lower your capacity, your stability is compromised, it’ll mess with your tractability, and in extreme cases fold up on you in rough weather. FG’s picture of that gal she posted, is how NOT to do it. That pontoon is way underinflated. Yes, good advice for extended use, mojor. But he just wants to experiment one time to test pedalling position even though there are good alternatives that have been pointed out. This can be done in a safe area like a swimming pool or small protected area. I’ve though of deflating like this just to see if a tube can really be flipped and how hard it is to get out, but would never run deflated on a normal trip.
Anybody use child’s wading pool to help balance the load of their pontoon? With very small pontoons that have a seat adjustment and footbar you can distribute your heavier loads and adjust so the whole thing runs on the level. That way you don’t endanger yourself or waste fishing time at your destination.
Hope this helps.
Pon
With you sitting in your seat, when you kick, you’ll get some of your fins out of the water and make noise and a small splash. So what. The more you are on the water, the easier it will get and you’ll get the hang of it quickly. Where you sit now is optimum for “less is more”. Fins, feet and lower legs in the water is much easier than lowering yourself to just above the surface with much more of your lower extremities having to cut thru water resistance.
When propelling yourself, scoop the water with your fins. Bring you legs back one at a time and scoop away from you. Always take oars too. If you get tired, or have to fight the elements, oars will get you back safely. Even though I have a motor, I always take my oars. Besides, I like rowing.
and the oars you have are awesome looking.. [:p]
MacFly 
For the record, I have to agree with MojO. I was trying to point out what NOT to have when on a lake.
Not even in a pool as what will it prove.
It will be mushy and shift, it will be very hard to row. Prvrt on the Idaho site has the same boat I do. He tried to run it with less air to see if it was less effected by the wind. He got more than he bargained for by doing that.
They are designed to be firmly inflated and that is all there is to it. I think anything else should void any warranty and liability of the company.
Pontoons are designed to get you OUT of the water and allow you to float in more shallow.
If this isn’t what you want, then look at a tube.
Thanks for the concern mojorizing.
I realize that FG’s pic is of how not to do it and, like Pon said, I definately wouldn’t be doing it regularly… I’ll probably just try it out one in some shallow water just to see how it’d be to sit lower… I realize that “the frame is built by the factory that way for a specific purpose” likely, like you said, to optimize “less is more.” However, when they build these things I’m pretty sure they build them for the AVERAGE user, and thus they are not optimized for everyone… Maybe my legs are shorter than average and that, combined with my relatively light body weight, has my fins closer to the surface than the average person’s would be.
All I know is I’m pretty sure that I could get better propulsion if I was sitting lower to the water (despite more of my lower leg being in the water and providing resistance). The reason for this is because I would be able to “kick” for longer, thus doing more work per kick. Right now my fins break the water pretty early so I can’t move across the water as fast as I could be moving, and I’m probably not enjoying myself as much as I could be if I was utilizing a larger range of motion.
As far as the splash, it’s definately not the end of the world, it’s just if I had the option of no splash I would definately take it. There’s nothing that ruins a quiet evening on the lake like the sloshing of flippers (i.m.o.) and, at the height I’m sitting at right now, I basically have to make “mini kicks” (literally only move my lower legs back and forth a couple inches) in order not to break the water on a still lake. Yeah, I could get used to it, but I’d rather not be uncomfortable if I don’t have to be.
I’m pretty sure I was “scooping” the water when I went out (“bringing my legs back one at a time and scooping away from me” (kicking/pushing the water forward))… I didn’t envision there was any other way to go about it, until FG suggested the “lifting” technique.
I don’t have the oar mounts/foot rests, but I might buy them down the road… I don’t forsee myself fishing anything larger than the lake in those pics (fairly small) so I don’t know if I’ll ever need them, but the last time I was out there mid-day, when the wind was blowing, it definately would’ve been nice to have those things 
Thanks again,
Rob
Rob, I didn’t realize you had no oars. Pontoons are not the ideal flipper only vessel. Getting around with flippers is fine, but when wind is blowing you do have to work twice as hard.
Poky-mon does great with just fin power on his pontoon, but I will vote to have oars also.
I will use my fins to hold a spot or on calm water to move cause I can cruise really slowly.
