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

On Friday 23 March 2007 07:40, PaddleWise wrote:
> This is the problem I see with putting so much emphasis on the value of
> safety equipment - it can instill overconfidence, or should I call it
> "false confidence." I am not suggesting anybody should go paddling
> without their safety equipment. What I am suggesting is that everyone
> should paddle AS IF they are without their safety equipment. If one does
> not have the skill to handle a situation, then that person should not be
> going into it on the belief that they posses the equipment to manage it.
> Safety equipment should be considered a backup, not a primary system.
> Skills, physical and cognitive, should be the primary recourse. But of
> course these are much more difficult to come by then simply plunking
> your money down in your friendly boat shop.

Very wisely put! Indeed, the more skills you have, the less emphasis
on safety gear, but it is worth noting that stunt drivers, ralley drivers
and other professional drivers that drive fast and dangerously have
a lot of active and passive safety gear in their cars.

I don't think they believe the safety equipment keeps them on the track,
or planned route, it just makes the odds better if something unplanned 
happens!

And as Scott notes, money is easier to come by than skills, so some think
that getting themselves the best equipment money can buy, will immediately
turn them into champs. 

These clowns are very visible at any model flying field. Usually
arriving with an entourage of friends and family, their equipment 
is brand new and almost always the best money can buy.

Just because helicopters, and scale models, say of a Top Flite North 
American P-51 Mustang, are cool, a lot of people buy them as 
their first model, thinking it can't be that much to it. 

I have tried to reason with some, tell them get to the basics first (just 
controlling a rudder can be a handful), or at the very least try flying a 
model of your plane in a simulator, with wind and turbulence turned on! 
When you manage to take off and return to base in one piece using a 
simulator, it is time to try something similar in real life. And 
preferably something sturdier!

And get a coach! A good one, if you can find one!

Do they listen? Very rarely! If they do come back, after their
wrecking of a lot of equipment the first time and often getting
a lot of egg on face, and sometimes laughed at by their "pals",
they realise that you have to do it step by step. Just as in any
other human endeavour!

My experience, naturally, was just like theirs the first time round, 
so I had quite a few false starts, but eventually did get the hang 
of it, and did get a good tutor! And I mastered it, just by getting 
a very simple and sturdy plane, and doing it day after day after 
day, for a few years!

I spent much of my childhood in rowboats, never wearing a 
PFD (we didn't even own one), then in my early twenties
some sailing off-shore (and blush, never wearing a PFD -
eventually, somebody's parents interefered and gave me one,
which I thereafter used!), but when progressing to kayak it 
became natural to wear one (using the sailing PFD, but 
with the foamy bits rearranged a bit, to make paddling in
it more comfortable - probably a big No-No!). And that I 
used the next few years, till motorcycling and flying abroad 
became the way of travelling, and the kayak was left 
abandoned, slowly crumbling away.

As Scott puts it, any good equipment, in the hands of one who does not
know how to handle it, can instill a lot of  "false confidence" about your
own abilities. An electric bilge pump, with a big reliable battery
and a hefty, marine on/off switch, that piece of equipment is 
something I put high up on the list of things to bring, when going 
paddling - most of the rest is options!

Safe paddling - I'm off to recce this summer's paddling adventure -
if we are well enough when the time comes!

Tord
***************************************************************************
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/
***************************************************************************