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

On 3/22/07, Mark Sanders <sandmarks_at_ca.rr.com> wrote:
>
> Still seems hard to really calculate your actual risk. Did the dead
> without
> PFD still die of hypothermia? Could they even swim? What was their over
> all
> skill level?


It's not possible to quantify risk in any absolute way. Life itself is
inherently risky. One cannot say with finality that carrying any piece of
safety equipment makes every paddle trip safe. Nor can you quantify skills
with reference to every paddle trip. We do know that the drive on the
freeway is probably the most dangerous part of our trip.

It seems to me to be unreasonable to demand that every kayaker carry some
specific list of safety equipment because you have no way to determine all
the variables beforehand. Are they paddling on a pond or a bayou or a quiet
and shallow estuary? Maybe a snakebite kit would be more valuable than a PFD
or paddle float.

I don't wear my PFD when I'm paddling on the lake in front of my house when
both water and air temps are warm enough to swim. The only time I
unintentionally overturned any kayak on that lake was when I was trying to
get out along a rocky bit of shoreline about 80 feet from my front door in
four inches of water. I was wearing a PFD but getting in and out of a kayak
has become tricky for me since my accident and I don't think that the bulk
of the PFD helped.

But when water and air temps are dangerously cold I wear a wetsuit and my
PFD. I also wear the PFD when I paddle at night. And when I'm on unfamiliar
water, salt water, or on Lake Union where a DeHavilland Beaver can come
roaring out of nowhere straight at me. (Okay... once a DeHavilland Otter
took off in front of my lake house but I wasn't in a kayak.)

If I paddled where and when Doug Lloyd paddles I'd hire a helicopter to
watch over me with rescue swimmers to jump in and pull me out of the
inevitable mess. I'd like to see Olympia pass *THAT* into law!

The demands by some that only their idea of safety have to be followed are
what seem to me to be silly. Would wearing my PFD make me safer in warm
weather in front of my house? Maybe by some fractional statistical
percentage. But so would sponsons. And a lot of us know where *that*
argument led.

Sponsons, by the way, might not be such a bad idea under some circumstances.
The guy who paddled to Hawaii had sponsons so he could move safely around
his boat.

And I like Doug's "sea seat" which seems to me to be a logical thing to
carry on his trips if one cannot afford a helicopter and swim team.

Craig Jungers
Royal City, WA


PS: I, like Doug Lloyd and many others, really like your website Mark. Keep
up the good work. :)
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