Hi Lee, Got it! Seattle Fabrics has some heat-sealable nylon. All you do is put the "wrong sides" together, hit it with a regular household iron, and voila! a welded seam.

Pete Rudie used it to make a nylon sprayskirt, and I'll probably use it if I ever make any more drybags. It would be very easy to use to make a paddlefloat. Do you still have your original inflation valve? You could just add the old valve to a new bladder. If not, Campor (in New Jersey) has replacement valves for Thermarest pads; you can buy them for about $5.

Incidentally, my brother and I are thinking of getting some of that heat-sealable nylon and make our own Thermarest-type pads. It's not the Staytek-like stuff, but exactly like the old, non Staytek pads.

Shawn

> Ok , i give up , I'm just going to send my list to Santa with a request
> for a few Shawn originals.

> this will be very easy: make a paddle float that can be rolled up and
> stuffed into the pocket of a snapdragon skirt or a big pfd pocket. I had a
> prototype that a company back in Ca. made but didn't market. It lasted 4
> yrs of moderate use before it blew out last month. It's made out of coated
> 200denier nylon. All the storebought ones are big chunky tough things,this
> thing probably isn't as tough but as a safety item I liked being able to
> stuff it anywhere. Bright orange please.