If you have ever gone bouldering, then you know the difficulty of transporting crash pads. Sick Sequence offers inflatable crash pads to solve just this problem, and it turns out the inflatable pads are pretty easy to transport via bike. Spencer and his buds took these pads out for some proper testing in the Sonoran Desert, check it out below…

You may be thinking, “Why is Spencer trying to review a crash pad on The Radavist?” Well, we aren’t called The Onlybikesavist, and like many of our readers, I contain multitudes… of hobbies. I have been rock climbing scarcely longer than I have been riding bikes, if even only by half a year. I’ve been a mediocre climber since my first year in college, and I don’t plan to get much better, honestly. I’ve always enjoyed mixing cycling and climbing when I can. On my first trip down the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, we somehow packed a very minimal trad rack for weekly climbing missions along the route. While a full rack of cams, harnesses, and shoes can fit on a bike, a bouldering crash pad was never an option. Until now…

For the uninitiated, bouldering is a sub-genre of rock climbing that involves short and intense routes where the climber forgoes any protection other than, historically, large foam pads below them. Typically, bouldering routes stay close to the ground, thus making typical rope protection unnecessary. One can find comical images of boulderers stacking three or more pads on their backs to hike out to routes, called “problems” in the bouldering world.

The idea of an inflatable crash pad is something I can imagine almost every boulderer must have had at some point in their life. Up until now, I had never seen anyone actually do it. Warner from Sick Sequence decided to finally make that dream every boulderer had into a reality.

My friend Jesse put me onto these inflatable pads that he saw some Japanese boulderers using them. I immediately thought, “Those could probably fit in a handlebar bag; we could ride bikes with them!” Warner was more than happy to send a few pads and a pump over for us to fall onto in the desert.

Sick Sequence Quick Hits

• Price:
  • Pad and Pump: $259.00
  • Connection strips: $26.00
  • Two pads and a pump: $544.00
• Weight:
  • Pad: 2170 grams / 4.7 pounds
  • Pump: 660 grams / 1.5 pounds
• Inflated size: 3 feet x 4 feet x 6 inches (92cm x 122cm x 15cm)
• Packed size: 14in x 8in x 7in (36cm x 21cm x 18cm)
• Uses the common Halkey-Roberts valve
• Optional rapid air pump

If you were running to the comment section to say this is simply an inflatable mattress, you would be sorely mistaken. Rather than relying on baffles to hold the shape of the pad, the Sick Sequence pads have a woven nylon internal structure. This structure is where the magic happens to make an inflatable crash pad possible. While a different experience from foam, the infaltable pad was plenty supportive for reasonable bouldering falls. Obviously, dialing-in the pressure is crucial, but that can also be tailored to preference and height of fall. One might want more pressure when their fall would land on their feet to protect an ankle roll, but a softer landing if climbing an overhang with a possible back or hip landing.

Each pad comes with a foot pump to inflate the pad utilizing a common Halkey-Roberts valve, which will feel familiar to readers who have done any river sports. The pump allows you to pump up and deflate the pad depending on which socket you screw the hose into. The pump is not specific to these pads, and being a generic pump, it does feel a bit cheap, but I had no issues with it during my review. There are a host of electric pumps and other options out there if you want something different.

The pads are lined on the edges with velcro, allowing pads to be lashed together to make a larger landing area. The Sick Sequence pads are a bit smaller than average foam pads, which are typically bi-fold. If you want to replicate the same amount of traditional crash pad, you probably will want two Sick Sequence pads. They offer a deal on purchasing a two-pad combo.

Boulderpacking

Ostensibly, the main reason I wanted to try these pads was to be able to ride bikes between bouldering spots. For our first test, we loaded up bikes on the west side of the Cochise Stronghold to hit a few spots. With the two pads split between handlebar bags and one pump in a framebag, we were able to easily navigate the overgrown single track between the bouldering spots. The pads easily fit inside a Swift Industries Zeitgeist 12L bag when deflated and rolled up.

Jesse and I did a ride over Gates Pass in Tucson Mountain Park on our Clydesdale cargo bikes. I felt special to be able to bike door to door and bring all we needed to boulder. This zone presented some actual danger for these pads with sharp volcanic rocks and cacti aplenty. The pad was fine with my falling on it on a sharp rock edge, and even picked up a cholla needle. Small holes are to be expected with anything inflatable, and they come with patch kits. I assume that a standard bike tube patch kit would work as well.

Roll It Up

The Sick Sequence pad comes with all the good and bad associated with anything inflatable. Yes, you can put a hole in it, but you can patch it. I was impressed by the durability of the pad material after repeatedly getting scraped down some volcanic rock on one of the landings.

Jesse and Dan were quick to note that the pads lacked any kind of handle. I mentioned this to Sick Sequence and they replied that they’ve heard this feedback from others, so the latest version has a handle. This could easily be made with some scrap fabric and velcro. The Sick Sequence pads lacked a small swatch of fabric to wipe off the dirt and dust from climbing shoes before starting the problem, something common on foam pads. The velcro on the edges can somewhat serve this purpose, but we all noted this missing feature.

Pros

• Inflatable to save space
• Very schlepable
• Fits in almost any backpack or bike bag
• Common valve type
• Woven nylon structure

Cons

• Inflatables can get holes
• No cloth swatch to dust off shoes
• More expensive than foam crash pads

Endless Possibilities

I wanted to highlight and review these Sick Sequence pads to spark people’s imaginations. Those super backcountry boulders might seem more appetizing if you could carry 2-3 pads and a pump in a backpacking pack. Want to go bouldering while on a bike tour? For a few pounds of extra weight and a pannier’s worth of space, you could easily do that. Flying to a far away destination to go bouldering? Throw a few pads in a checked bag, and you’re good to go. The Sick Sequence pads open up a whole new world of bouldering. Where would you take these pads?

Find all the details and get your next crash pad at Sick Sequence.