About 20 years ago, I made my own without knowing what I was doing. I figured pads should run parallel to your shoulders, not perpendicular, so they could distribute the weight over a larger service area.

It was all made from scraps of stuff lying around the house. I started by putting some styrofoam on the thwart.  That was covered some bubble wrap, then with a layer of blue foam sleeping pad and that was covered with a couple of layers of carpet pad. The whole things was encased in MyGyver (duct) tape.  The space between the pads just had the carpet pad wrapped around the thwart to protect the neck.  The sytrofoam was cut at an angle so the pads match the slope of the shoulders.

I tried a few other pads on canoes I rented but nothing has been better than my homemade system.  What is truly amazing is that it has lasted over 20 years, with just some minor refreshing of the duct tape in places.

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