All summer I wander the streets of Quebec City, carrying my messenger bag of sketching stuff.  It’s what I do.  I love it.  But to wander for two to three hours with art supplies hanging from your shoulder causes me to be more than a little bit concerned about weight.

So, while my Walkstool is my normal butt-holder, and while it’s lighter than most tripod stools and provides me with a comfortable (most don’t) and stable (most aren’t) throne, I often leave it behind (bad pun intended) just to lighten the load.

When I’m without it I search for, and rarely find, park benches or other seating provided for the many tourists who are wandering with me.  More often than not, however, I end up sitting on concrete steps, stone walls, or on the grass which is ok, but often hard in all senses of that word.  It’s also the case that I have have an ongoing dispute with Mother Nature over these seating areas as she likes to dump her morning dew over everything and/or she rains on my parade route, leaving these seating areas, even those park benches, wet and uninviting.

So, it was with some excitement when my sketching buddy Yvan showed up with this gizmo.  It’s sheer genius and made for sketchers like me.  It’s got a simple valve that you use to blow it up, providing a ripstop nylon surface on the top and a rubberized, tough fabric on the bottom.  What could be better?

I’ll tell you what!  It’s a pad like this that ends up this small and that is easy to get back to this size.  Unlike so many of these ‘see how small the bag is’ products, this bag could actually be smaller and still accommodate the seat so you don’t have to beat yourself up to get it back in its sack.  Mountain Equipment Co-op, my butt thanks you.