> > 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? Yes, I have been in such a situation and would probably have been killed. I mentioned it here before but it probably bears repeating. I was sea kayaking in New York City and got pinned against a low bridge by a fast moving current. I was suddenly moved from a sea kayaking situation to a classic whitewater peril, a strainer. My very stable boat flipped like a tossed coin. I wet exited (I don't roll but rolling is pretty impossible against a strainer). I came up on the upstream side and immediately the current tried to push me under my boat and into the entanglement of old shopping carts and dangling rebars under the bridge. It was only by virtue of having my PFD on was I able to keep myself from being sucked under by the current. They would have been no chance to don the PFD in this situation were to I have had it on the deck or in the cockpit. And no amount of strong swimming would have gotten me away from the immediate danger as I could not have built enough moment to swim clear. So you just never know when you need your PFD. So better to wear it all the time even in fairly calm situations. Up until my accident, the water had been as smooth as glass and shorelines were just 50 feet or so away at most, the kind of conditions that may tempt one to take off a PFD in a false sense of security. ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** 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 - 20:33:12 PDT
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