I've got several commercial pads but I want to make my own for kicks.

anybody got a good patern/template or pictures of their home brewed Landing strips?

Beta on their contruction would be great as well.

I would be interested in this as well if someone has more info.

I second this... it'd be cool to see what people have made...

My roommates are from MN and they say the owner from Organic (form MN) is super nice...I'm sure he wouldn't mind offering some advice..

Organic Climbing has a couple of videos on how they make their crashpads on their website.

May help you out:

www.organicclimbing.com/

I got pissed at the airlines for changing the luggage size from 72" to 62" and I was heading to JTree. So I made a pad that would fit within their guidelines and still maybe soften the landing.
It is a trifold - 48"x36"x3.5". Folded up it is 36"x12"x12". The foam is 2" of open cell and 1.5 of closed with that gym carpet top (got some gym scraps).

It was kind of a tricky sewing job, with a good bit of hand sewing involved to close all the foam pockets. I put some straps on it to close it up and carry it on my back, but some of them tore off. Also used a velcroed on cloth to close the center seam.

I'm no Organic designer or anything. I posted some picks in my album. Click on my name to see them I guess?

i think the real trick is getting the foam and fabric at reasonable costs. i remember my friend looked into it, and could only find the materials in bulk. that being said, i'd just take a look at the pads that you have, and go from there. maybe read up on the manufacturer specs to get an idea on materials.

I've been looking into this recently, want to make a big beast of a pad to take out on solo ventures. Anyone have any luck finding decent supplies of foam, closed and open-celled?

Asana will sell foam sized for their pads at a pretty reasonable cost and you can sew your own cover for it for very cheap.

I've found that couch and chair foam is a little too soft for pads. Plus what you really need is appropriate hard cell to disperse the impact. 1 or 1.5 inches on one or two sides.

Just a quick Question--- What makes Organic pads organic?

Already mentioned, but be very careful with the sofa/couch foam. Really tall, and too soft, very easy to roll ankles.

Try here, free shipping on orders over $75

The Foam Factory

Here are two crashpads I've made:

Home made crash pads. Submitted By: Mike Anderson on Jan 19, 2010

Oh yeah, one more tip. If you're making a big crash pad, I highly recommend sewing in some baffles. If you don't, and you stuff it with loose foam scraps, it will balloon into a football shape which could be dangerous when you land on it. You can see in this photo where I sewed baffles (the two straight lines in the middle of the pad).

home made crash pad. Submitted By: Mike Anderson on Jan 20, 2010

Thanks Mike for the tips. Any more information would be much appreciated as well. I am ordering the scraps tonight and I plan on making a couple of these for my woody that is almost complete.

When you land on it, does it bottom out? Would putting carpet on it disperse the impact at all if it does bottom out?

How difficult was the sewing of the fabric? Thanks for any advice you can give.
Edit: also, you found muslin wide enough to make one big strip on top? I dont see a seam on top, so it would appear that is the case.

If you plan on heading to Joshua Tree and are flying in (see Adam's comment above), another option is renting a pad from Joshua Tree Outfitters. They also rent camping gear.

joshuatreeoutfitters.com/Miscellaneous.aspx

Yes, that is one big piece of muslin. You should be able to get fabric at least 5' wide. That pad does not bottom out. It depends on how much foam you put in there. If you find that it's bottoming out, put in more foam. The sewing isn't too hard because you are mostly doing long straight lines. However, it's never a bad idea to have an expert do it for you, if you have one available. You are dealing with a ton of fabric which can be tricky to feed through the sewing machine, but it's not impossible.

Make sure you put the opening along the longest edge of the pad, or you will have trouble getting all the foam in there.

Well Mike. Thanks for the advice. I attempted my first huge pad today with enough stuff for 2 more. It certainly doesnt look as good as yours. Itlooks like blown up footballs between the baffles. It will work for falling on your knees, but it looks like an ankle breaker with the odd shaped foam pieces inside. How did yours turn out so flat and smooth looking? Did you put the foam pieces in like tetris to get a perfect fit?

Haven't tried it out on anything super highball, but me and my friends used two old spring mattress stacked on top of each other, it worked for problems about 20 feet high, nobody complained about the impact