Re: [Paddlewise] What's in the PFD?

In a message dated 3/21/2007 6:04:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time,  
cramersec_at_charter.net writes:

Oh,  please. I understand that you NW types think it's a heat wave when 
the  temps get to 75, but really now. I've been paddling in Georgia for 
20  years, summer water temps in the 80's, air temps in the 90's or more,  
always wearing a PFD, always with people wearing PFDs. In that time I  
have seen one, count 'em, one person who appeared to be having problems  
related to heat. That's just not a very good  excuse.



Steve,
 
I respectfully disagree with this. A couple years back I posted a note on  
why I determined for myself that while paddling in the tropics we had foregone  
the use of PFD's because the risk (for us pesky northwest types) of heat 
stroke  was greater than failed rolls, failed group cohesion for assisted rescues 
and so  forth. We ran some pretty big water daily, with air temps in the mid to 
high  nineties F and water temps in the mid to high 80's F. Wouldn't have 
changed a  thing in retrospect. You replied back that if that really were a 
factor nobody  in Alabama or Georgia would wear one either. There is such a thing 
as  acclimitization. I hate name dropping, Derek, Nigel or Dowd aside, but Dowd 
did  write, in the tropics (or wherever it is really hot) you might want to 
bring  along a pair of fins in lieu of a PFD.
 
In my latest adventure, I tried to keep up with a couple of indians in the  
Talamanca range. Once we got to lowland rainforest and the heat index really  
ratcheted up, despite a week of intense conditioning on the trail in high  
elevations, I sweated buckets and those guys didn't leak a drop. Now those guys  
are cool! Figuratively and literally. I have the highest respect and admiration 
 for these guys.
 
John Walden, who wrote Jungle Travel and Survival, writes that it really is  
a good idea to acclimate for several days in country prior to any significant  
exertion. We didn't have or take the time. I guess ambition takes its toll on 
 itineraries. 
 
I hear an argument for inflatable PFD's coming. But you have to actually be  c
onscious or functional at least to activate. In the months I've spent in some 
 of these places we couldn't even find a decent stove fuel besides the gas 
pump,  let alone an air cartidge that fits those inflatables. Flying with one in 
2007,  the non-pepsi generation, is a no no.
 
I'm with you and Chuck on PFD's right up to the point where you say it  ought 
to be a law and/or I have to wear it everywhere. Sometimes the shoe don't  
always fit amigo, or make the most sense. Sometimes, reasoned decision making  
and a lengthy time spent training, etc., will just have to do in place of a  
knee jerk or paper solution.
 
Cheers,
 
Rob G



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