Rob, 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. Ron *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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 *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
On Mon, Sep 09, 2002 at 08:23:22PM -0500, Ron Dunnington wrote: > 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. Bringing post wet exit re-entry strategies is probably both a tangent and "asking for it", but what the heck (it's late and my brain is becoming number by the moment). If you like or need all those goodies on the front of your vest, and the only thing holding you back is the need to a conventional re-entry to get back in the boat, then why not ... Learn to do a paddle float assisted re-entry and roll. Keeping a foam paddle float under the deck lines makes it easy to find on a flipped over boat. The foam kind are what you want for this procedure (or a dual chamber inflatable float, with only one chamber filled with air). And the foam kind go on the paddle blade in nothing flat. If you've ever done an Eskimo rescue, the float assisted re-entry and roll is no harder. The only drawback is the amount of water you can pick up while rolling back to vertical. Maybe I'm lucky there, being 6'4" with long legs means I tend to fill the cockpit and reduce the available volume for water to occupy when coming back up. All in all, I'm glad I learned the technique. It works. It's even fun. Doesn't beat a real roll, but even kayakers that possess one (but don't practice it) get to play about in the water thanks to the unexpected wet exit. Works fine, even with a rescue vest on (which has more hardware hanging off it than a "Tool Time" re-run). And with one of those on, a more traditional re-entry that has me crawling about the rear deck of my boat is NO fun at all. It it doesn't chew the heck out of the deck, it'll catch on the deck lines. -.- jwd *************************************************************************** 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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