Re: [Paddlewise] Gnus

When it comes to cold water temperatures and great distances from rescuers, a pfd makes for a good body identifying device.

That being said, I am a fan of inflatable PFDs for sea kayaking in cold water, for unlike most vest PFDs, they keep your face out 
of the water, letting you bob about without drowning long after you have lost motor muscle control, which in turn increases the 
possibility of rescue, despite how remote that possibility may be.  Prior to inflation, they are also less intrusive than vest 
PFDs when it comes to either rolling up or swimming.

For me it is really quite simple.  I think of cold water paddling as padding on a sea of liquid nitrogen, and I act accordingly. 
 Air and water temperatures, wind and waves and anticipated changes in weather, hours of daylight and time of day, physical 
condition and energy replacement -- all these things and more are important considerations for me, whereas a PFD merely rates a 
"meh . . . can't hurt to wear it." Yes, in cold water I wear an inflatable PFD that will float me face up, and I bring an epirb 
and a VHF, for collectivelly they will help my odds, but those odds are so long in the first place that for me to place any 
reliance on that gear would be folly.

What it comes down to is that PFD design and use regulations are based on an attempt to protect the general public in typical 
circumstances -- a family out canoeing at their cottage, a fisherman trolling in a motorboat, or a passenger on a cruise.  The 
regulations are broad brush, so specialized fringe elements of watercraft use often are not adequately addressed.  That's why I 
was in violation when I wore a non-approved vest PFD in the days when only horse-collar pfds were approved, and later when I wore 
a non-approved rescue vest PFD in the days when vest PFDs were approved but rescue vest PFDs were not approved, and still later 
when I wore an inflatable PFD in the days before inflatable PFDs were approved.  Today I still find myself in violation, for when 
I head out in an OC-6 or OC-12, for despite the pile of rescue and survival gear I bring along, I do not bring the required 
boarding ladder, self-illuminating ring-bouy, anchor, axe, or permanently mounted navigation lights.  By the same token, in high 
water I have quite happily poached closed sections of rivers that were closed due to the very highy water that attracted me.

Trying to prevent water safety regulation concerning the general public would be futile.  What can be of use is to work with the 
government to try to draft the regulations to be more accomodating to specialized fringe uses.  That way, as a fringe use becomes 
more mainstream, as both wildwater and sea kayaking have, there is a better chance of ending up with bearable regulations (e.g. 
have a PFD on board for each paddler) rather than something entirely unworkable (e.g. permanently mount 
that-which-shall-not-be-named to all canoe and kayak hulls.)  Think back to the effect that sea kayakers had concerning the USCG 
funded study on that-which-shall-not-be-named.  I suggest that it is important to at least let the regulators know what one's 
views are, both individually and through paddlesport organization, for without such communication, we risk ending up with 
regulations that, however well-intentioned they may be, can range from ineffetive to unworkable for various paddlesport 
disciplines.

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


On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 14:04:14 +1000
  "Peter Treby" <ptreby_at_ozemail.com.au> wrote:
> The plaintiff's lawyer, Howard Willisby, said, 
> "It's
> all right for those conceited ego-strokers to go
> paddling off to cold far-flung destinations, and
> to come back bragging about how they escaped death
> without using an epirb, but not so long back SAR
> personnel had to pick up a frozen mummified corpse
> in the Far North, located after the victim's
> absence from certain email chat-rooms was noticed
> a couple of years down the track.
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