[Paddlewise] Victoria fatality and accidents in general

I agree that educating paddlers about risks and how to promote safety is 
very important. Many retailers and others who are active in the industry do 
a remarkable job to promote safe paddling, which probably explains why the 
number of accidents is as low as it is.

Unfortunately, more and more boats are sold by mass merchants who simply 
sell a plastic item and are not in a position to provide the needed 
education as part of the sale. I do not see how we are going to educate all 
the new paddlers who get into paddling that way. A way to make their 
paddling safer is to improve the safety of the boats that are sold. It was 
mentioned earlier that boats are generally sold without flotation - or with 
barely enough flotation to keep the unloaded boat afloat. This is fine for 
most of us. We simply add the flotation we need. But we can hardly expect a 
new owner of a recreational boat to add flotation unless he is told about 
the importance. The problem is similar to the PFD issue, but there is one 
difference. We can't get everybody to wear PFDs, but it is certainly 
possible to make sure a paddler always has an effective flotation aid 
available. I think all recreational boats sold should be required to have 
enough built-in flotation to keep boat and occupants afloat and placed to 
keep the boat upright and stable after a capsize.

I know that my suggestion would add a level of regulation that we do not 
like very much, but such rules are in place and seem to work well for other 
craft. Why should paddle craft be exempt? One could make the argument that 
adding built-in flotation would add a lot of cost for the manufacturers and 
in turn make boats more expensive. But we would save the cost of adding 
flotation after purchasing the boat - and would not the added safety be 
worth some expense?

Alv Elvestad
Pakboats

***************************************************************************
PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed
here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire
responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author.
Submissions:     PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net
Subscriptions:   PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net
Website:         http://www.paddlewise.net/
***************************************************************************