The current discussion of PFD's reminds of an interesting encounter I had some 30 years ago. I lived in Madison, Wisconsin and was out on Lake Medota in an 18 foot powerboat (please, I was youn and naive). There were three or four women in the boat. We stopped in the middle of the lake and one of the girls put on a PFD (we called them life preserves in those days) and jumped into the water. Within a few minutes I noticed some hand waving. The girl was about 25 feet form the boat and her pfd was falling apart. I launched myself into the water and pulled the girl back to boat. Once in the boat I asked "can you swim". She replied "no". I uttered some unpleasanties to myself (i.e., how #$_at_^%'ing dumb do you need to be to voluntarily jump in deep water when you can't swim). I learned two important lessons that day. (1) Don't rely on others to equip themselves with workable safety equipment (the boat was my father-in-laws(first wife)); and, (2) don't underestimate other people's willingness to take risks. Wearing a PFD, using seat belts in cars and airplanes, and wearing a bicycle helmet are no-brainers for me. I owe it to myself, my family and those with me. to safe, fun paddling and other endeavor, sid *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Mar 03 2000 - 06:32:58 PST
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