Re: [Paddlewise] kayaker death, equipment, safety

From: Dave Kruger <dkruger_at_pacifier.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Apr 2001 08:42:45 -0700
Colin Calder wrote:

> Do Leashes, tethers, epirbs, strobes, paddlefloats etc make a safer paddler?
> Or quite the opposite, does making the informed choice NOT to carry these
> items make a safer paddler? I have been reflecting on this for pretty much
> the life of this list, and I believe the latter case.  I wear a foam pfd and
> helmet on the river but choose neither of them at sea. I  might decide to
> take only paddle, clothing and boat or I may have a boat full of kit down to
> a vhf and gps.

> When am I safer? Does the excess equipment make me an un-safe paddler?

Colin is leading us to the swamp of self-examination, via the thickets of risk
adjustment, and under the portals of justification.

I have a simple answer:  I am safer when I know what I am doing, and less-safe
when I do not.

Equipment is only the medium through which we adjust our accommodation to a
level of risk acceptable to our own selves.

Embellish at will.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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Received on Mon Apr 02 2001 - 08:46:10 PDT

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