[Paddlewise] What's in the PFD?

I've sent the following to Paddlewise and a modied version to Sea Kayaker 
Magazine's community on-line forum after careful consideration of PFD 
discussions and my own preparation for spring paddling. I usually don't 
duplicate messages, but felt this time could be an exception:


I looked forward to Chris's Cunningham's April 2007 editorial. He wrote some 
time ago about his own experience with a close-at-hand item that if hadn't 
been there, he surly would have wished it was. This of course, is the basic 
premise with respect to at least certain selected item of safety gear.



Excuse me if I come across as somewhat passionate about safety gear. I've 
been involved with Canadian Coast Guard/ combined military rescues at sea 
over three decades of paddling, in situations where personal floatation, day 
and night visibility, signaling and communication ability have saved lives. 
My priorities with a PFD include wearing the PFD in the first place. 
Obvious? You would be surprised at some of the rationale paddlers have for 
not wearing one, but I will always defer to a person's freedom of choice.



Also obvious is making sure the biggest item in the PFD, namely the actual 
paddler is dressed for immersion and up to the physical demands of the trip 
or outing and operating within appropriate skill levels -- and that a known 
mental inventory with respect to navigation, topography, sea state 
variability and egress points is realized. There should be a backup plan for 
every decision carried through. This has to come first, before safety gear 
considerations. I'd also highly suggest paddles research or even take the 
time to enroll in a VHF radio protocol course if offered (often club 
organized), hypothermia workshops, preliminary lifeguard training (which 
always include first aid training), and take part in a wilderness survival 
course. At least consider these options.



What an individual paddler includes within the context of carried PFD items 
is highly personal and can be subject to where the paddling takes place and 
often local paddling community ethics. Both risk assessment and the 
corresponding gear carried is hopefully informed by objective thinking. 
There are inexperienced paddlers who carry an abundance of gear who have 
given no consideration to the matters mentioned above, and conversely, 
expedition paddlers who carry a minimum of gear -- often including SOF 
aficionados. And there are examples of advanced expedition paddlers who have 
had to rely on their safety gear. It is also true that intermediate paddlers 
often carry only a few rudimentary items that probably should be augmented, 
just as there are advanced paddlers who carry a fair bit of safety and 
survival gear on their PFD. There are no absolutes; only individual choice 
and hopefully common sense.



Having given up on wearing a PFD myself in exchange for the freedom of an 
approved inflatable vest, some of my own safety and survival gear resides in 
two add-on pockets attached to the sides of the main belt and a modified 
upper back pocket. Some items are individually tethered inside the pockets, 
none long enough to reach beyond chest level. While the tethered 
out-of-production SeaSeat in the rear pocket that facilitates increased 
survival time at sea is of no relevance to this discussion given it is no 
longer in production, if you do become separated from your kayak, you ought 
to place some serious thought into how you are going to summon help and 
survive until that help arrives. Even along remote coastline with no 
immediate safety net, corridors of marine travel and aviation routes may 
exist. Suffering the immediate consequences of poor judgment is also within 
the framework of personal freedom.



I also run a quick- releasable tether off my vest's belt to the kayak that 
can be attached if I so wish. My main priority if I do bail out in bad seas, 
is how good are my real-world, cold-water re-entry skills, and will I have 
the dexterity to re-enter effectively. To that end, I carry a redundant 
neoprene hood and gloves in one of the pockets, along with a one-hand 
release rescue knife in a specialized, flapped compartment. In the other 
pocket I carry 3 small aerial flares wrapped in plastic, a smoke flare, 
signal mirror, diver's flashlight, fire-starting apparatus and a VHF radio. 
Know the local VHF chat channel and have the radio set to high output. On 
the back of my vest is a strobe light that has an additional bottom-mounted 
flashlight, the latter a redundancy. A ball-free whistle is attached to the 
front zipper, as is a small one-hand opening, redundant rescue knife. All 
items are rescue-tested in actual sea conditions, both for accessibility, 
plausibility of use, and must not hinder demonstrable re-entry methods.



I could replace the emergency SeaSeat cushion in the back of my vest with an 
actual hydration bladder which is what the pouch was designed for, but 
having used the survival seat in a real emergency; its worth is invaluable 
to me. More relevant to a possible boat-less, vest/PFD worn, land-based 
survival scenario, would be the inclusion of a tightly-packed, item-rich 
wilderness survival kit as some paddlers like to carry. But my kayak in my 
lifeline, so most other survival gear is stored onboard or accessible from 
the cockpit. Knowledge of local and destination small boating regulations as 
pertains to safety gear is also advisable. If possible, try to carry some of 
these items in or on your PFD. There are gear vests that can be worn over a 
more featureless PFD. Again, safety gear doesn't make you safe.



After careful consideration of both Paddlewise discussions and Sea Kayaker's 
new newsletter and thier fairly new on-line forum, including the latest 
editorial content, I've added an identification tag to my vest and ordered a 
Rescue Streamer from Rescue Technologies based in Hawaii (the Survivor II 
model, with belt pouch). I have no financial connection to this company. 
Additionally, especially now that marine-use regulatory decisions regarding 
personal locators have been ironed out, I'll be shopping for a compact model 
before resuming expedition paddling. I will have to downsize my bulky VHF 
radio to make room.



http://www.rescuestreamer.com/



It was nice to see Chris Cunnigham mention Paddlewise in his PFD editorial, 
as well as see a picture by Mark, of Duane doing his surf antics on the 
last-glance page. Paddlers should be a community of friends



Safe paddling,

Doug Lloyd
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