Re: [Paddlewise] on PFDs and fatalities

I have not followed the PFD discussion closely, but wish to report our 
findings:

In Finland (Europe) last year 2006 only 4 people died while kayaking or 
canoeing.
- Two took an old canoe from a cottage and paddled out to the sea. 
They had no experience, no PFDs and were supposedly drunk. May, very cold 
water. 
- One man kayaking alone was found dead, the story says 
not if he had PFD or not, but he was the only kayaker dying in 2006. 
Summer, the water max 20 degrees Celcius 
- Man fishing in an open canoe, the time when lakes started to 
freeze, got overboard and died. If I remember correctly, he had a PFD but 
the water temperature was around freezing point.

In the last ten years we counted that around fifteen persons have died, 
out of those only two paddling enthusiasist (one alone on the open sea, 
drowned in shallow water, no exact reason found, slipping suspected; the 
other an experienced paddler paddling alone, no PFD, maybe a medical 
problem), the rest of the cases had each three of the following 
charasterics:
- drunk
- alone
- no experience
- no PFD

or were fishing or hunting on freezing lakes and capsized.

It is maybe informative to state, that our paddling season is from 
April/May to November/December, depending on when the sea and lakes 
freeze, and the main season is June-August. The water is never too warm, 
it is exceptional even in the summer if water will be warmer than + 20 
Celcius. Helsinki is in the South of Finland, and on the same latitude as 
Anchorage (please check, I am not quite sure), North of the country 
reaches about 500 km over the Arctic Circle.

But: trained paddlers and paddlers in groups led by experienced paddlers 
do not seem to get in trouble over here. Also the club tradition is very 
strong here, and seems to transfer nicely the best practices and maybe 
also good and safe attitudes to newer paddlers.


Anna Leena Lind
Sea kayaker, Helsinki
(I am also a member in a Paddling Safety Committee shared by paddlers 
from Finnish Ccanoe Federation, other outdoors and training organizations 
and government offices like Coast Guard, Ministry of Environment etc. Most 
of the info was gathered in this context)

www.iki.fi/alli
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