How a GCI Outdoor Freestyle Rocker Changed Our Weekend Trips

Last summer, Terri and I were sitting on the tailgate of the truck at a state park campground in the Finger Lakes, watching the lake go dark, and I said something I'd said a dozen times before: these chairs are done. The cheap bag chairs we'd carried for two seasons had torn at the seams, the webbing was shot, and every time you leaned back you felt the frame bite into your shoulder blade. We'd been camping together long enough to know the drill. You buy a cheap chair, you get a season out of it, and then you're back at the store.

A week later Terri came home with a pair of GCI Outdoor Freestyle Rockers. She'd seen them at the hardware store, tried one in the aisle, and decided we were done replacing chairs every year. I'll be honest, I rolled my eyes a little. A rocking chair for the campsite? We're not on a porch. But she's the one who usually gets these things right, and she'd already taken them out of the box, so I carried them out to the truck and we took them on the next trip.

That was a full season ago. Since then the two GCI Outdoor chairs have been to every weekend trip we took, plus our week-long summer trip, plus a handful of evenings down at the reservoir where I fish from shore. They've been thrown in the bed of the pickup under the bed cap, hauled out in the rain, sat on for hours around the fire ring, and used as a seat for Kyle when he came along. One full season of that, and they still feel like the day we bought them.

I'm a framing carpenter, so I tend to look at gear the way I look at a job site. Does it hold up? Does it set up fast when you're tired? Is it worth the money? The Freestyle Rocker answers all three, but it took me most of the season to figure out why. It's not the rocking that does it, although that's the part people notice. It's the way the chair is built.

The frame is solid, the armrests are wide enough to hold a coffee cup without spilling, and the drink holder is actually placed where you can reach it without twisting. The backrest is tall enough that you can lean your head back and watch the lake. And the rocking motion, once you get used to it, is the difference between sitting in a chair and actually relaxing in it. After a week of swinging a hammer, that motion is worth something.

A full season of weekend trips, rain, and pickup truck beds, and both GCI Outdoor chairs still feel solid.

The thing that surprised me most is how it handles the places we actually camp. State park campgrounds in the Finger Lakes are not flat. You're always setting up on a slight slope, or on packed dirt, or on grass that's still wet from the morning. The Freestyle Rocker has a wide base, and the way the legs spread makes it feel planted even on uneven ground. I've never once felt like I was about to tip over, and I've sat in it on some questionable spots.

The other surprise is the weight. It's not the lightest chair you can buy, and I wouldn't carry it on a long hike. But we don't hike chairs. We throw them in the bed of the pickup and drive. For that kind of use, the weight is a feature. It means the frame is made of something that's going to hold up.

There are a few things I'd change if I could. The chair doesn't pack down as small as the cheap bag chairs, so it takes up more room in the truck. And if you're the kind of person who likes to sit bolt upright and eat at a table, the rocking motion can take a minute to get used to. The first time I sat in it, I kept reaching for an armrest that wasn't there. After a weekend, I stopped noticing.

But here's the test that matters. When we packed up at the end of the season, we didn't throw the chairs in the corner of the garage and hope they'd last one more trip. We put them in the truck bed cap where they live now, ready for the next weekend. That's the difference between gear you replace and gear you keep.

The chair also became my fishing seat. Most evenings I fish from shore at the reservoir, and standing for two hours is harder than it used to be. I started carrying the Freestyle Rocker down to the water, setting it on the bank, and casting from a seated position. It's not something I planned. It just turned out that a chair that rocks slightly is a good chair to fish from, because you can shift your weight without getting up. Kyle made fun of me for it until he sat in it for an hour and caught a walleye.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you were sitting at my kitchen table, here's what I'd tell you. Buy the chair that's built to be thrown in a truck. Buy the one that sets up in ten seconds and doesn't tear at the seams after a season. The GCI Outdoor Freestyle Rocker isn't the cheapest chair on the shelf, and it isn't the lightest. But it's the one I'd buy again, and I don't say that about much of the gear we own. Terri bought a pair last summer and we haven't looked at a bag chair since.