[Paddlewise] PFDs

Hi, All

It seems the PFD discussion is upon us again.  It is a hard one to
discuss.  Those who propose not wearing one for a variety of reasons
will stick with their reasons and those who feel they should always be
worn will adhere to theirs.

Let me start by stating that I am a proponent of wearing one all the
time and can point to a harrowing personal experience (as I did in an
earlier post) in which not having it on would have cost me my life.  And
it was in conditions that turned from extreme benign with land just a
few dozen feet away to one in which my life was suddenly in peril.  I
would have had no chance to get one on or even be able to inflate an
inflatable vest before my goose would have been cooked.  Modern PFDs are
so comfortable that they can be worn for days on end with no problem.

However, I do agree with John Winters on one of his basic
premises...that wearing a PFD is no guarantee that you will be safe and
that people do die even with PFDs on if they make some misjudgments or
are plain stupid.

If it were a matter of a PFD giving some paddler the false confidence to
do something beyond his capacity on the supposition that his PFD will
bail him out, then I would propose that the person not even carry one
and be scared into being cautious.

John has an interesting theme here which he has very astutely written
about before...the idea that having certain equipment sometimes
emboldens a paddler to take risks that he wouldn't were that equipment
not at hand.  It is certainly a valid point from what I have seen.  I
think for example (and I have mentioned this before) that the
proliferation of marine radios is starting to lead to a line of thinking
in which some paddlers will take risks beyond their capacity because
they feel they can just call for help.

I guess a good attitude would be to have all the safety gear you can
afford and _know how to use_ but then act as if you have none of it with
you.  Pretend you are paddling naked without even a sprayskirt to
protect your private parts from cold water shock.  Pretend that no one
knows you have gone paddling and no one is around to help you.  This
will give you a good underpinning for paddling.  Obviously this is an
extreme mindset but you can work up from there to tell yourself things
like "Well, I do have a paddlefloat but do I really want to put my
self-rescue technique to the test in these conditions?"  Or "My PFD will
keep me afloat but do I really want to be floating around in the middle
of this maniacal sailboat race?"

ralph diaz

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