RE: [Paddlewise] How Would You: Change to. . . .PFD

>>  I've seen enough kayak/kayak and
kayak/surfboard collisions to be assured that the extra padding will
come in handy 8)

Good point! A few years ago I was kayaking surfing with a friend. We
are both competent surfers but not experts by any means. We were coming
in on the same wave, close to each other. My friend did someting wrong
and his kayak (a Crossfire) shot toward me, hitting me directly over my
heart. I was extremely lucky. My PFD was the kind made of vertical
minicel (or some dense foam material like it) tubes. The bow hit
directly on a tube, rather than between two tubes.

I felt a stab of pain like I'd never felt before in my life. It was
excruciating. All I could see was a pitch-black universe with several
brilliant yellow flashes going off. Fortunately I had enough presence
of mind to pop my skirt. I then passed out as I fell out of my boat.
Then I came too as the waves rolled me ashore, because I remember
trying to stagger up the beach. Then I passed out again. Then I was in
a tropical paradise of beaches, brilliantly colored flowers, waving
palms, and a blue sea. I was lying on the beach looking at the sky
with the shadows of the waving palm fronds constantly passing over
my face. Then I realized that they were not palm fronds; they were
human heads looking down at me in concern. I had been hauled up
the beach and laid on my back, and my friend and some bystanders and
a lifeguard were looking at me to see if I was okay. I was, except for
a fractured rib.

I think my PFD helped me (the unconscious me) to float and be rolled
up to the beach. Also, it softened the impact of the kayak bow on
my rib cage.

Jack Fu
47-37-39 N 122-07-57 W

PS: The little dream I had about the tropical paradise seemed to
last a long time, but I was told after I came to that I was out
only for a few seconds!

And where did the scenery of the dream come from? From the murals
in one of those tourist-trap Chinese-Hawaiian restaurents I had
been to recently.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net
[mailto:owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net]On Behalf Of B00jum!
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2000 11:34 PM
To: Paddlewise
Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] How Would You: Change to. . . .PFD


Jack Fu writes:
 > I am an experienced ww river kayaker and sea kayaker.
 >
 > Anyone who does not wear a PFD in river ww is damned stupid.
 >
 > <snip>

Just to clarify - I wasn't contemplating *not* wearing a pfd in river
ww.  The anecdote was to illustrate one possible case where it _might_
be useful to loose the pfd, but certainly not a case of going sans
pfd.

I've also thought over the surf issue and decided, that while in my
kayak I'd much prefer to have it on.  I've seen enough kayak/kayak and
kayak/surfboard collisions to be assured that the extra padding will
come in handy 8)  I think the pfd/swimmer issue doesn't take into
account possible injury (esp in surf &/or rock gardens).  If I've been
thrashed around and am feeling out of sorts, for whatever value of
'out of', I'd *really* like to have the pfd on to assist in my
flotation.

So far, in all the questionable pfd cases (needing to swim, etc) it
doesn't strike me that there is a compelling reason *not* to wear your
pfd in the first place.  If you later get into a situation where
loosing the pfd may help, then you can burn that flotation when you
get to it 8)

I think this just leaves flatwater.  How many people paddle flatwater
w/o a pfd or with a pfd 'on deck'?


----------------------------------------------------------------------
snark_at_tulgey.org     aka Glen Acord	  http://www.tulgey.org/~snark
	if ($snark eq "boojum") {vanish("softly","suddenly")}




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