[Paddlewise] PFD/Safety equipment debate

Perhaps an oblique look at the PFD/Safety Equipment discussion. In my
case, I have always hated hats, and still hate hats. However, and this is
a big HOWEVER, I am blessed with an almost perfect head, unsullied by
very many of those filamentous protrusions which so common on most
people's cranial areas. As a result I always wear a hat when I am
Kayaking, since I live in a High UV area of the West Coast, California. I
rarely forget to use the 45 sunblock, but I never forget the hat, not
after that one time that I did forget it some 35 years ago when I was
paddling my old Royak out to a dive site. Second degree burns all over a
bald head is really uncomfortable. For the same, and other reasons like
broken glass and rocks, I always wear hardsole rubber bootees. I paddle a
SOT boat. I've seen people with 2nd and even 3rd degree burns on their feet.

When I was a motorcycle rider for 30 years, and a motorcycle cop for 14,
I ALWAYS wore a helmet. Helmets are odiously uncomfortable, but I've seen
at least a dozen cases where people died, or were thereafter very
vegetative, solely for the lack of wearing one. A couple were less than 5
mph accidents where the head impacted something solid like a a rock (edge
of the concrete sidewalk) or a kayak (a car) and suffered fatal damage.
I've come off of a motorcycle at over 100 mph two times. One time the
helmet saved me from serious injury; it was totally destroyed, the other
time I miraculously escaped with 3 quarter sized abrasions and not even a
bruise. (no scratches were to be found on the helmet.)

I feel the same way about my PFD that I do about my hat/helmet, love/
hate. It's hot/bulky but I wear it anyway. If I get too hot I go for a
short dip in the water which is never warmer than about 55 here. If I
lived in warmer climes, I might modify that policy, somewhat, the way I
did with the ballistic vest when I was M/C officer. If I wore it during
the day with temp. at over 80 or so I would get prickly heat rash and
couldn't sleep at nite. A cop can't afford to be overly tired at work,
especially a motorcycle rider, so I would stop and put it on at dusk, and
wore it all the time at under 75 degrees. The threat that vest was
intended to defeat was, statistically, 90% at night, so I felt I could
probably get away with it. You play the odds and sometimes you win,
sometimes you lose. When losing means my life, and not my money, I'm a
_lot_ more careful.

I enjoy my life, and spent a lot of time and work stuffing my head with
egregious facts that I don't want to lose. I don't advocate laws which
compell reasonableness, however reasonableness is interpreted. I do
believe in evolution having observed it in action on many occasions. I
don't willfully try to become an example of it's action. Your mileage may
vary. I'm willing to accept the discomfort of the PFD for the promise of
being able to continue to experience the joy of paddling my little teeny
boat in intimate contact with power of the immensely huge ocean. I once
got to touch an orca when I was in the water. It could have disposed of
me in an instant. I felt exalted the same way I do when kayaking. The sea
can dispose of me any time s/he feels like it, but perhaps because I have
always treated it gently and with respect for its moods, s/he has not
become enraged with me, yet, so I am able to continue a lifelong love of
the sea in my 62nd year.

Fair winds and happy bytes,
-- 
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   Dave Flory, San Jose, CA.             daflory_at_pacbell.net     
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  Speak softly and study Aikido, then you won't need a big stick.  ©2000
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