I don’t have any pictures. I wish that I did. I am including a paint diagram (poor skills – sorry). of the shape of the seat.
My brother and I both made one. We first tied each hole of the seat to the tube separately, that wore thin spots in the tube. Then we laced a long line spirally around the tube and that worked for as long as we used them. We didn’t have fins, just tennis shoes. Between the sore backside and kicking like maniacs we still had fun. The 60s were great!!
No that reason, when I was a kid back then there were alot of lakes/ponds around me. We had those tire tubes in the pool all those years and became skillful playing with them. That idea never popped in my little growing head to turn it into a fishing machine. I never knew about (fishing) float tubes or any sporting goods stores that carry them back in those days ( and no Internet like today) so that was no way for me to figure that out yet. (I must be “slow”)
How I got started on float tubing in later life was a buddy had two of them from his late dad and uncle who used them and he gave them to me when I told him what I saw about a guy coming out of the woods with something like a tire tube thing. Then I grew from there (and have five tubes!).
So this guy says “added a plywood to the inner tube and used ropes” which made me wanted to see how it was made.
I hear you. I grew up with the Snake as a back yard. We too used tube.
Kind of laid back on them with our rears in the middle.
Just too late, but that is a good idea!
Yes, the plywood was suspended in the middle and we sat on it. Just about where a round float tube’s seat would be now.
It was a wonder we didn’t drown! I remember numerous slow leaks and swims. We didn’t have the best of tubes. But we wore cutoffs and tee shirts so we weren’t weighed down, and we kept our fishing gear on the bank.
We spent most of the summer in the water anyway either swimming or fishing. In Western Washington you swim in the rain too!
Wish I could remember where we got the idea in the first place. I don’t remember if we made it up or saw something somewhere that gave us the idea to try it.
As you will read in my book, I also got started by adding makeshift seats to the inner tubes from which I had been fishing. That was sometime in the late 50’s. Some of my early seats included rope slings (OUCH) and progressed to burlap and canvas seats. They all worked. Some better than others.
Every once in a while, when I am feeling annoyed at some minor discomfort or inconvenience while tubing, all I have to do to feel better is remember how it used to was…in the BAD old days.
Those “tubes” were the bad old days! Like I said I am very spoiled now!! I enjoy fishing on a comfortable seat with only my feet in the water. I wouldn’t go back for anything,-- well maybe to visit my memories a bit. I miss my brother, the mountain, and occasionally the rain.
This picture is of the lake I learned to swim on and tube (7 lakes made into a reservoir) on a verrry low water year. The other picture is of a friend and a bunch of smallmouth from Lake Tapps.
As you will read in my book, I also got started by adding makeshift seats to the inner tubes from which I had been fishing. That was sometime in the late 50’s. Some of my early seats included rope slings (OUCH) and progressed to burlap and canvas seats. They all worked. Some better than others.