Re: [Paddlewise] Pfds and new rules.

Craig Jungers wrote:

> I don't like living in a country where a police agency can question clearly
> competent (if not expert) people just to show that they can.
> 
> It's not likely we'll be able to train law-enforcement officers enough to
> give them the ability to recognize competent people when they see them (and
> then leave them alone). So I'm in favor of not giving them another tool
> enabling them to stop and question everyone on a whim.

Great rant, Craig.  I'm on your side.

I'm also sad for the Moms and Dads who may have lost a kid because the kid 
drowned, whose life might have been saved by wearing a PFD.  And for the 
drowned kid.

In the end, if it does become mandatory, some will not die who might have, 
some will die anyway because the PFD could not save them anyhow, and others 
will die because they did not wear it, even though the law mandates it.

I'm a personal responsibility advocate, an education advocate, and not one 
for a mandatory PFD rule.  But, I sure don't like it when a kid dies 
because his parent did not take responsibility for the kid's safety.

If it becomes mandatory for kids to wear PFD's, that might make some sense, 
in the same way helmets are mandatory for under-16 kids on bikes (here in 
Oregon, anyway).  But, I don't buy it for adults:  "adults" should be able 
to be responsible for things like that, and they should not need me, in 
loco parentis, to make them wear one when conditions they should.  Some 
will live by their choices, and a small number will die.  I think that is 
an unfortunate reality, and that we lose something valuable when we take 
away that responsibility from individuals.

For the record, the guys I boat with follow their own rule and wear the 
PFD, every day, every boat.  No reason not to.  But, when I body surfed, 
board surfed, I did not wear one.  Would not have made sense, and in really 
big surf, one would have been a liability.  I want to be able to make that 
choice, to be responsible for myself.

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR
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