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

I do remember the previous discussion, and i still think that wearing a 
PFD in hot weather (I was being conservative, Mark; I've paddled in 100+ 
weather, too) is not the life threatening thing that you make it out to 
be. If it were, the sport of WW paddling would not exist in the Southeast.

Wear your PFD or don't, based on your own risk assessment. I just always 
wear mine; one less decision to have to make. I like people i paddle 
with to wear theirs, too, because it's a whole lot easier to rescue 
someone if they're not using all their energy to keep their nostrils 
above the water. But unless I'm "in charge", I'm not to OC about it.

Somebody else made the accurate comment that people die with PFDs and 
without PFDs. It's clear that many have died because they were not 
wearing a PFD. I have not heard of a paddler dying because they were 
wearing one. YMMV.

Steve

Rcgibbert_at_aol.com wrote:
> 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 conscious 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
> from AOL at *AOL.com* <http://www.aol.com?ncid=AOLAOF00020000000339>.


-- 
Steve Cramer
Athens, GA
http://www.savvypaddler.com
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