"Litigation Paranoia News", the Journal for Extra-Paranormal-Legal-Potential, has this week reported that legal proceedings have been commenced by a group of disgruntled rescue workers against a class of defendants including owners of sea kayaks with PFDs attached to their front decks (but not worn), and all published advocates of naked, gear-free sea canoeing. 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. No reports of a missing person were received from family members, who were sworn never to report the paddler missing, on pain of being cut off from inheritance of his collection of cloned canoes, and original manuscripts of published works, including the renowned "Risk Homeopathy: A Manual for Paddling Euthanasia". "The rescue workers who attended to the body recovery mission reported the body to be in excellent condition, given the time that had elapsed since death. "He must have been pretty dry to start with, and unappealing to scavengers of the High Arctic". The most publicised similar case was Don Starkell, and he didn't die, as rescuers were able to revive him, somewhat, with cryogenic recovery techniques". "These tragic rescues cause untold psychological injury to SAR workers. We are asking for a couple of billion, little enough compensation for rescue workers, and another billion for fitting lifetime locator beacons into the layup of all sea kayaks. We expect little opposition to the necessary legislative measures". *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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. *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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