> In the whitewater community, Charlie Walbridge has been working for >decades on such reportage and analysis. At least there, there is abundant >evidence of the utility of PFDs. Charlie once wrote that merely wearing one >could cut the fatality rate in half. I have been very careful to qualify that I am referring to sea kayaking, not whitewater. > Since the Delaware River above Port Jervis became a Wild & Scenic >River about 1981, NPS has kept such records. Since that year there have been >34 paddling related drownings on the river. Of those, 32 victims did NOT wear >a pfd. The remaining two had them on, but so loosely they were immediately >stripped off. Surprisingly, Alcohol was not a major factor, nor was the kind >of boat. > I really don't think that more efficient statistical sampling >procedures would enhance the impact of that observation. No one, no paddler, >who wore a properly fastened pfd has died on that part of the river in 20 >years. The implication here being that if you are wearing your pfd then nothing bad will ever happen to you. I would sure like to see you try to explain that to all of the people who have died with their pfd's on! You are obviously leaving out some important pieces to the story. For instance, if it is customary for people to not wear a pfd while exploring the Wild & Scenic portion of the Delaware River then I would expect very few of it's victims would be wearing one. That's a simple matter of statistics and really has very little bearing on the effectiveness of wearing a pfd. This is an example of the kind of thinking that so riles me in this argument. It would seem that a number of the pro pfd-ers are so fervent about this topic that they will argue it without logic, without reason --- it's like arguing with a religious zealot! "Don't bother me with the facts," they declare. "My mind is made up and closed, and there is absolutely nothing at all you can say or do that will sway me!" I have been paddling on the Colorado River where not only pfd's were not worn, but we didn't use sprayskirts, or even paddles, when we were going with the current. I don't think anybody who has done that trip feels that they were ever in any particular danger. Paddling on the Colorado River is not the same as paddling in Baja, which is not the same as paddling in Washington State, which is not the same as paddling in Alaska. To try and come up with a blanket safety regulation that will adequately cover all of these scenarios is ludicrous! Scott So.Cal. *************************************************************************** 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 - 17:06:07 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:52 PDT