Sea-to-Summit Comfort Plus Insulated. It is a dual-chamber sleeping pad, so you can tune the bottom chamber to provide protection from the ground and top chamber to give you the right level of cushion. None of the other pads on the market can do this, including celebrated Therm-a-Rest and Exped offerings.
Exped Megamat is still more comfortable, but it won't fit inside a kayak and weights a lot more. S2S Comfort Plus is the next best thing.
Check out the Sea to Summit Comfort Plus XL - it's literally designed for bigger folks. The dual air chambers prevent you from bottoming out when side sleeping (i'm also a side sleeper at 260lbs). Usually around $199 but goes on sale sometimes and packs down surprisingly small.
I'm pretty much exactly like you. Tried and DONT LIKE:
Therm-a-Rest NeoAir Topo Luxe. It's thick! But the horizontal baffles suck for side sleepers.
Sea to Summit Comfort Plus Insulated. Not thick enough. Hip pain. Noisy.
The one I want to try next: Therm-a-Rest NeoLoft.
Thermarest neo air xlite is light and warm enough for most four season camping. Sea to Sunmit are the most comfortable but not the lightest. I have heard really good things about the nemo Tensor mats. Looking to get one next. Horizontal baffles for me as a side sleeper seem to be less stable than a mat with longitudinal baffles that run the length of the mat. Id recommend a mat with an R Value of 4.5 for most good weather to early winter camping
Im a side sleeper. I have the XLite. Often feels like the baffles lack structure at the sides so in the mornings I'm fidgeting around feeling like im rolling off the mat. Not used a Tensor although I have heard it offers much better support for side sleepers.
Also, the Xlite suffers from mould spots on what seems the outside. For comfort though, from all the mats ive laid on, sea to summit are the most comfortable
audiophile_lurker
