The "Our Best" yoke pad? Does anyone use this vs. the traditional double pad sets? The pad is located in the Boundary Waters Catalog.

I rented canoes from Piragis twice and both had the horse-collar pad. I hated them. Maybe the boats weren't balanced right, but they killed my neck. It was especially bad when the portage trails went vertical, either direction.

Since it's all one piece, you can't adjust the spacing between the "shoulder" pads.

If I even need to rent a canoe again (I don't have any complaints about Piragis), I'll take off the horse-shoe and put my own portage pads on.

Pete

I also hated that horseshoe style yoke pad.

Piragis Boundary Waters Catalog

I switched to Spring Creek sling pads and I like them much better.

Spring Creek yokes

I think the Spring Creek seat/yoke at the link below looks like it would be great but I haven't tried it. I would like to try it sometime.

Spring Creek Canoe Seat Yoke

I like them. Maybe they fit me well, but I have no complaints. I have used them on my Royalex Sundowner and it was much better than the traditional pads I had. I have not use the Springcreek sling pads. I imagine Piragis would let you try some out on one of their rentals if you wanted to test drive one.

ClarkPeters correctly identified the problem with the nonadjustable nature of the horse-collar pad. For most people, the horse-collar will be too close to the neck and exert downward pressure on the trapezius muscles, which will in turn exert pressure on the neck vertebrae causing neck pain when used for an extended period of time. Adjustable yoke pads can be moved toward the end of the trapezius muscles and avoid having the muscles pull downward on the neck:




If you raise your left arm over your head, then use your right hand to feel the flat spot between the trapezius and the deltoid muscles, that is the spot where the portage pad should land.