About the use of PFD's and helmets: Personally, I wear my kayak helmet in the house and in the street, to be safe from falling objects or low clearings in doors. As soon as I hit the open water in my kayak, I take the helmet off: Open water is the least likely place to hit something with your head. Same with a PFD: I always wear it in the car, for the risk of loosing control and ending up in the water. A car will sink, so the PFD will keep me on the surface. When I enter my kayak, I take the PFD off: The kayak will float anyway, so I can always cling to my boat. After the story of the flares in a bathtub (I have never seen it, but that's no reason not to refer to it) I refuse to take flares: Too dangerous. Floatation in your boat is extremely dangerous when entering sea caves (you might be crushed against the roof) so I always paddle with my hatches wide open. VHF radios, or any other electric equipment, might produce sparks while paddling through oil or gasoline, so leave them at home folks. Stay safe! My point? 1) Safety is something that is very hard to cover in rules: It takes intelligence and knowledge to apply the right equipment at the right time. 2) (a very liberal dutch point of view) I think every person should have the right to take risks and die in any way he wants. He may have a responsibility to his wife and children, maybe even to his paddling companions, but not to society. 3) Safety equipment is expensive and a bother. I think everyone should have the right to define his own balance between joy and safety. Every form of pleasure, every form of life, has its own risk. Let people decide for themselves how much risk they are willing to take for their pleasure. Educate them (if they want to be educated, even ignorance is a human right), so they can make a rational choice, but leave the choice to themselves. Niels (who is spending a fortune on safety equipment these days) *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 04:15:31 PDT
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