Re: [Paddlewise] Sospenders PFD/Tropical Paddling/letter of the law

There were rumours of that happening on the Ottawa near Beachburg in the mid-80s, but I 
never saw it despite paddling there a lot (wearing a high end rescue pfd that was not DOT 
approved, but was significantly superior to anythingapproved in Canada at the time).

The problem was that the Canadian market was too small for Amarican manufacturers of 
specialized pfds to bother with the testing and approval process in Canada.  Fortunately 
Canadian pfd manufacturers are now putting out better products, and more amd more American 
manufactuers are jumping through the regulatory hoops to get their products certified for 
Canada.

Meanwhile, I'm still happily wearing my non-approved pfd, but despite having been stopped 
quite a few times, and despite occasionally paddling with (and fishing out) the local OPP 
water safety officer and other police, the question of it being non-approved has never been 
an issue.  I figure that the police will be happy if I wear a pfd, and only a Barney Fife 
would care whether or not it is officially approved.

Richard Culpeper
http://my.tbaytel.net/culpeper/

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 15:22:46 -0400
  "Gary J. MacDonald" <garyj_at_rogers.com> wrote:
> I heard of a case where someone got a ticket for wearing an unapproved (but superior) 
>model.  Fought it and won because he was using a beat-up old Canadian cheapo model as a 
>kneeling pad, and the officer didn't notice it but the paddler's companions could testify 
>to it.
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