Re: [Paddlewise] PFD accessories

Ron writes: I carry as little as possible attached to the front of my PFD.  
All I have is
a whistle. I store most of that stuff , when I carry it, in a deck bag. 
Reason
is, I have not developed a dependable roll and must depend on a wet exit and
re-entry to get back in the boat. I discovered (the hard way) that all those
goodies attached to the front of my PFD make it almost impossible to re-enter
the boat. 

Hi Ron,

You are correct. All that extra stuff has impeded my progress in reentering 
the boat, most particularly the chest mounted knife. I lost a good knife once 
to that. The radio and flares are in pockets and they've not. I've also taken 
to using a plastic tie wrap for the whistle and placed it around the shoulder 
area as when it was attached to the zipper I noticed that it unzipped my 
vest. 

All that being said, my self rescue skills rely on the roll or reenter and 
roll and not a paddlefloat reentry. I still practice them, however warily, of 
the extra stuff in my pockets. 

By the way, once in a while I carry a deck bag that I modified with fastex 
buckles to my front deck. It is a small watershed bag with a waterproof seal 
and the bag is no bigger than handling a small camera, snacks, 12 ga flare 
gun, etc. That bag could attach and reattach with one hand in case of an 
emergency swim or the more mundane easy access at camp. Both of my kayaks 
have the fastex buckles secured to deck lines for instant attachment.

Rob G
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