At 7:45 PM -0700 3/8/00, Shawn W. Baker wrote: >That's such a sticky situation. I'm opposed to legislation, but I >strongly believe that everyone should have sufficient safety gear. I >have to admit that I don't have the right answers. > What is "sufficient" safety gear. If a person dies, obviously the gear was not "sufficient". "Best practices" may indicate that when going out in certain conditions, certain gear is a good idea. But is the gear that is a good idea for an ocean crossing really reasonable for a little fishing in a local lake. If a customer says, "I want to paddle on the open ocean." a retailer should probably recommend more gear than if the customer says "I want to look at birds in a marsh". It would be irresponsible of the retailer to try to sell paddlefloats, flares, GPS and pumps to someone who says they are going to do relatively "safe" paddling. A responsible retailer should probably ask what the customer plans to do with a boat and attempt to sell the appropriate gear. I don't think it would be irresponsible of the retailer to take the customer at their word. If the customer wants to paddle in a small, warm lake during the summer the retailer should not be expected to talk about the risk of hypothermia in the ocean. I do think some positive flotation should be standard equipment in all kayaks: float bags for boats without bulkheads for example. I also advocate float bags for boats with bulkheads and watertight hatches, but that is another issue. Nick Schade Guillemot Kayaks 10 Ash Swamp Rd Glastonbury, CT 06033 (860) 659-8847 Schade_at_guillemot-kayaks.com http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/ >>>>"It's not just Art, It's a Craft!"<<<< *************************************************************************** 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 Tue Mar 07 2000 - 08:46:03 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:21 PDT