On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 04:27:16PM -0400, Gypsykayak_at_aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 04/21/2002 8:37:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > djmacdo_at_ilstu.edu writes: > > << If someone can explain to me that there is a real reason to wear a PDF on > a river that is warm, two feet deep, forty feet wide, running at perhaps > one mile per hour, in 95 degree temperatures I would be glad to hear it. >> > > here we go again..... Yup. (Although I should point out that I find PDFs to get soggy when printed out and taken on the river. I prefer a PFD.) BTW: I do precisely that -- wear a PFD on a river that is warm, two feet deep, forty feet wide, and running at perhaps one mile an hour in 95 degree temperatures -- all summer long, every summer for the past ten years. I train for slalom racing on the Brandywine River, so I'm not just floating: I'm doing interval workouts, sprints, and stroke drills. Yeah, it's hot; but that's what a roll and a water bottle are for. > 10. your boat could whack you on the head as you flip I've also been hit in the head with my own paddle during a particularly violent flip. > 9. you could hit your heat on a submerged rock/log Bingo. A paddler died a few years ago on the Yough in PA -- not in the whitewater, but in the flatwater pool at the put-in -- when he smacked his head on a rock and drowned. > 8. you could swallow a lot of water and come up choking Yep. Or just do that involuntary snort that some of us do which causes some amount of water to end up where it shouldn't. > 7. you are setting a good example That might be the most important of all. I'm well aware that on most summer weekends there are a lot of people walking by. There are also a good number of recreational canoeists. I want them to notice the PFD (and helmet, BTW: I'm never without it) and realize "hey...this guy looks halfway good...and HE'S WEARING SAFETY GEAR!" because it communicates the message in a way that my words never will. Will they get it? I don't know. It's impossible to measure the impact. But over ten years and thousands of workouts (I train all year, but there aren't many people around Oct-Apr) I would like to think that at least a few people have worked it out. I do know that, from time to time, I'll strike up a conversation with passers-by or rec canoeists and the topic will come up: I explain to them that people who don't use proper safety gear are usually known as "victims" and that I'd prefer not to be one... and that I would also prefer that *they* not be one, either. ---Rsk *************************************************************************** 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 Sun Apr 21 2002 - 13:53:01 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:30:52 PDT