Re: [Paddlewise] safty equpipment and other gear

Joan wrote:

>    The question is, how much is necessary and how much is too much.
>Just on/in my PFD I have the whistle, a car key, knife, sun screen,
>snack bar, nose clip, and bug repellent. I have the first aid kit,
>emergency stuff dry bag, extra paddle, water, sponge, pump, paddle
>float, paddle leash, deck bag with gloves, extra hat, extra sun glasses,
>sometimes compass and NOA radio, and often my lunch. This is just for
>day paddles!
>    What is necessary and when is it just window dressing?

You know, Joan, I recently asked the list a similar question about what
emergency gear I, as a beginning paddler, should carry, and I recieved
several answers both on the list and privately suggesting lists as long as
yours...and longer...even though I had been very clear that I am a
recreational paddler paddling almost exclusively on Class I rivers which
are not even especially remote from civilization (do I really need all my
emergency gear, I wonder, as I paddle through people's backyards?).

But I, with my vast months of experience paddling, have already learned the
hard way that even in the most benign of circumstances, it's not silly to
load up the boat with the dry bag and the pump and so on. For instance, a
quiet paddle last fall during which I, against all odds (and due, I will
say, to taking some very bad advice from a couple of self-styled experts),
managed to sink my boat. If another friend hadn't had a dry bag with a
towel and some dry clothes (though not enough: we ended up dividing them in
such a way  that she paddled the rest of the day in a very fetching
Maidenform bra), a minor incident could have been truly unpleasant for me
and possibly even dangerous. Since then, I have not let my fear of looking
silly stop me from loading my dry bag (and pump, paddle float, etc.) into
my boat for an hour's paddle on a quiet and familiar river.

Of course, I usually unload it all, unused, at the end of the trip.

Here's my motto: It's better to have it and not need it, than to need it
and not have it.

Su Penn


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