Re: [Paddlewise] kayaker lost off Galveston

From: R. Walker <rww_at_mailbox.neosoft.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 14:36:03 -0500
> Whatever that was, not wearing a PFD hardly is what kills a kayaker.
> A PFD just makes it easier to retrieve the body.
> 
> If we just believe that a kayaker was lost because he/she did not
> have a PFD on, then we will not learn anything from the accident.

In this particular case, I disagree completely.  The waters the guy
was paddling in were over 80F, and literally team with offshore 
platforms and boats.  If he was wearing a PFD, he'd be alive right 
now.  Whether alive in the water, or alive on shore no one can know.

Reading an update on the story, posted to CanoeTX, the man's 
body has been identified, and the kayak is apparently one he
rented here in Seabrook; probably at the same place I first rented
one last year.

Boggles the mind, here I've spent close to a year getting ready to
punch through the surf zone off a Texas beach, and some brain
damaged person willy-nilly rents a SOT kayak and takes it out
through some of the roughest surf of the year.  Probably caring
nothing but the PFD strapped on the rear deck, and a waterbottle
between his legs.   




Richard Walker
Houston, TX
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Received on Tue Oct 06 1998 - 12:49:25 PDT

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