RE: [Paddlewise] Visibility of kayakers & SAR

At 02:08 PM 8/3/00 +1000, Whyte, David wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:	KEVIN M KENNEY [SMTP:kmkenney_at_PRODIGY.NET]
>> but in
>> reality one of the best signalling devices (during the day) is a simple $3
>> plastic mirror available at lots of places. 
>> 
>> 
>	A good cheap mirror is a discarded CD. A lot of places have software
>on them that is no longer needed and throw them out. They are robust, very
>reflective and have a hole in the middle for lining up. My CD burner on my
>PC makes useless CDs regularly though not intentionally. 

There is also a seemingly endless supply of AOL CD's.  Thanks for the
suggestion.

I went to the "signaling devices" session at the AKT skills symposium last
weekend and there was a lot of good information shared.  Since PFD, paddle,
and kayak colors were covered during the talk I thought it would be worth
summarizing some of the topics.

One of the most important points stressed was if signals are going to be
used between paddlers communication of what those signals mean beforehand
is very important.  A anecdote was shared where on paddler could see a
group of boats off a bit with they're paddles waving back and forth.  The
paddler sprinted towards them and when he finally caught up he discovered
that they had a sheet of clear plastic between a their paddles and were
trying to make a sail.  They were unaware that the waving of the paddles
back and forth  was a common signal for "emergency".

The mirror was one of the first things mentioned as a signaling device as
was a bright white light.  The battery operated head lamps were highly
recommend (don't forget to carry extra batteries).  Another dual purpose
item that can be used for signaling was one of the bright orange bivy bags.
 There was a bit of joking about the instructions printed on the side of
the bag and that it could be used as reading material while waiting for a
rescue.

The VHF radio was also highly recommended and several examples were related
where it actually helped.  Chris Duff had sucess with a VHF radio
contacting a cruise ship after he broke his boat on a cobble beach in New
Zealand.  

One of the important issues mentioned was just to use your head and be
aware of the environment and conditions around you.  There's not point in
randomly shooting off flares if there isn't going to be anyone to see them.
 That also extended to carrying a weather radio (a VHF can double here) so
that you're aware of pending weather conditions.

The topic of flares was, uh, enlightening.  A box of "skyblazer flares" was
brought out and we were asked what we thought the success rate would be on
the 3 flares in the package.  Nigel Dennis responded that his experience
that when the flares were within their expiration date range the sucess
rate was less than 50% and went down signficantly after that.  Parachute
flares were highly recommend as were dyes.  It was suggested that flares
should be considered a last resort rescue device and should be carried in
lieu of mirrors, lightts, etc.

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