[Paddlewise] legislation schools of thought

Well that was fun, wasn't it? 


You can, definitely, legislate minimum required equipment for paddling the
sea. A lot of this equipment is stuff we take anyway (or I will when I can
afford it). You can not ensure that people will learn to use the equipment or
will wish to use it. Personally I use it. A PFD stored in the bow is as much
use as a hole in your head once you're in the water. But if you don't want to
wear it thats fine by me. Mind you, as a counterpart, please shut up when I
take my European clothes off, don't say how shocked you are, c'mon you see the
news on TV. It's a lot more shocking than that.





So it seems there are to major schools of thought on safety legislation for
kayaks:


1.) keep our heads down a hole as long as possible, until some miserable
£`^dngjs forces us into something like the French have or worse.


2.) prepare legislation that "holds water" and allows paddling as paddling is
done by us, but imposes a standard of equipment that we consider necessary for
our pastime, but avoids the BS and overkill.


Cheers,


Kevin.








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