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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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