After reading kellys post about sticker placement, maybe it could be a good idea to free-up some of that valuable front-deck realestate: 🙂
A pump, a sponge & a paddlefloat, are items carried by many seakayakers, these are used during and after a rescue in many circumstances. Keeping the pump & paddlefloat close at hand is important, many people store them on the frontdeck, or next to the dayhatch behind the cockpit. I do the same if I am teaching self-rescue. The problem with storing these items on the front deck is that it takes space away from the seakayakers all-important chart table…. Over the last few years I have been storing these three items under my frontdeck. I have a system that allows me to quickly retrieve these items if I am in the water beside the kayak, or if I am in my boat and want to use the pump.
In this image, you can see that I have used epoxy and fiberglass tape to construct a simple system to hold the equipment under the frontdeck. The elastic is passed through plastic tubing that is secured to the sides and the middle of the underside of the cockpit.
In the second image, you can see the pump, paddlefloat & sponge neatly stored out of the way, but easily at hand.
Of course, kayaks with a cockpit hatch have a built-in storage area for other essentials like VHF radio, flares & snacks 🙂