Craig wrote: >>>>>Many Americans of a certain age (ahem!) grew up in an era of almost complete freedom. Free not to wear seatbelts (or even have them in your car), free not to wear a bicycle helmet, free to fish, hunt, and hike on most government-owned land, free to pretty much do whatever we wanted as long as it wasn't infringing upon someone else. Even most of our campsites were free to use.<<<<<And all the rest> Wasn't it great! Thanks for spelling it out so well for those who never knew that freedom. It depresses me and pisses me off every time I run into another new limitation on a freedom (or fee free experience) I once enjoyed. Someone mentioned the advantages of having a PFD on in case one is bashed on rocks in surf. Tsunami Ranger, Eric Soares used to say they were dangerous because they didn't allow one to dive down under the breakers so as not to get picked up by the breaker (a surface phenomena) and smashed into the rocks. While I always wear a PFD when kayaking these days I do not want to have it be a requirement. If I take up racing again I'd like to not wear it. Two reasons: overheating and because my nipples are still hypersensitive to friction ever since I raced with a (required) PFD with no undershirt under it about 20 years ago. Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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 Oct 18 2006 - 00:38:51 PDT
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:22 PDT