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

From: Gary J. MacDonald <garyj_at_rogers.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 18:46:33 -0400
The incident I heard about supposedly took place right in Ottawa, by a 
patrol cop who was calling people over to the bank.  I have been waiting 
several years to actually meet the person involved....  But, when the 
new regs came in wthere was a *lot* of talk about it and I heard other 
cases of routine checks at boat launches and such in and near the city.

GaryJ

RICHARD CULPEPER wrote:

> 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.
>
>

-- 
Cedar canoe and WW kayak for sale.  http://e.domaindlx.com/vpsoccer/Canoe-and-Kayak.htm
***************************************************************************
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 Wed Apr 27 2005 - 15:45:57 PDT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:20 PDT