wrote: >Here goes a question for all paddlers in this list. >Have any of you ever been in a situation where you would have perished >without a PFD? -------------------------- Possibly. (I assume it's ok to admit to something stupid (ok, make that REALLY stupid) here): I was canoeing down a fairly flat, but moderately swift and very COLD river (fed by melting snow in the mountains) in Washington state in the winter. I was wearing fleece and polypro-type stuff (ie no dry or wet suit), but did have on my PFD (type III). In the process of trying to dodge a log sticking out of the water, I got out of sync with the paddler in the front, and tipped the canoe. Although I consider myself a fairly strong swimmer, the swiftness of the river made it very difficult to get to the shore, especially with rapidly failing muscles (due to the freezing water). I'm guessing that I was in the water for maybe 5 minutes (??). The PFD helped by letting me rest just a bit between efforts to swim to the shore and by reducing my fears of drowning a bit (a not-insignificant point, IMHO), and probably held a little of my upper body heat in. If I had had to worry about staying afloat as well as swim with all my might towards the shore, I might not have made it. Evan *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Oct 06 1998 - 15:51:10 PDT
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