Brad wrote: >>>>This is a terrific endorsement of a piece of kayaking gear called a pee bottle. At least it works reliably for males.<<<<<< I think a pee bottle could be a real hazard in a kayak. Spray deck open, hands off the paddle, and your attention off the paddling while trying to be careful not to spill. Maybe you should take the advice Tsunami Ranger Eric Soures gave at a long ago West Coast Sea Kayaking Symposium talk. He said: "I'm Portuguese, I just go in my wetsuit." It definitely looks to me like the safer alternative, and both sexes could do it equally well too. I'm not sure what being Portuguese had to do with it though. Eric was not a fan of PFD's at the time either. He thought surf paddlers should also be very strong swimmers and needed to be able to get under the power of the surf at times. Especially when the surf was breaking into the rock gardens he loved to paddle in. Eric certainly didn't eschew all safety equipment though. The picture of him outfitted in Sea Kayaker made him look like some well equipped military commando. Later he started using a PFD but called it a "rib protector". For decades I skied without a helmet even though I took a few blows to the head and arms wrapped up around my head from skis spinning like helicopter blades (held to my foot by so called "safety straps"). Safer for other people I guess as they were designed to keep the skis from running down the hill. They were certainly not safer for me. I was an early adopter of ski brakes when they were an add-on accessories rather than integral to bindings as they are now. After Sonny Bono and the Kennedy clan member died of head injuries skiing in one year I went to school on them and started wearing a helmet. Now I'd feel naked without one. Besides providing some head protection it helps keep my head dry and the ear flaps and chin strap are great for holding the ear buds of my MP3 player in place. It helps hold my eyeglasses in place along with Croakies as well. The first couple of times I went skiing this year I had a few nasty little falls that twice bruised my hip and once made may left shoulder traumatized enough that I couldn't lift my arm from the shoulder that night. luckily it seemed to sort it self out overnight and was fine in the morning. After that I fashioned myself some hip pads. I'm 61 now and although I tell myself that by skiing and falling hard sometimes I'm giving my body the message that it needs to keep those bones dense and the rest of my body tough as well. That's the theory anyway. However, as a back-up I'll also wear hip pads and shoulder pads (hockey or lacrosse I think--I don't know for sure, I picked them up for a few dollars at a thrift store). Since then I haven't had any nasty falls to test out the new equipment but I've upgraded to some hockey hip pads just the same and even tried out some knee pads/brace one time (I put 19 stitches in my knee at the end of last season and 6 stitches in the same knee maybe 40 years ago--the later a chop to the bone from one of the "helicopter blade" skis). I probably wouldn't be wearing this stuff if it was getting in the way of my skiing but so far it hasn't and it might someday prevent a serious injury so why not wear it. Nobody else I know of does at the present. Maybe I'll have been the first to do so. Maybe I'll start the ball rolling and become a promoter like I did with the paddle float rescue. Let see first I'll patent them and then get on the Skiwise chat room and promote the hell out of them. Next I'll demand that the government make them mandatory for all skiers. If that doesn't work I'll write to organizations of lawyers and let them know that they could profit mightily because the liability for not requiring them would make them "bigger than Firestone" for lawyers. I'll accuse ski shops that won't carry them of a conspiracy to maim and kill the public in a book I self publish. I know. I'll go by the "handle" SkiPadMan. ;-) Matt Broze www.marinerkayaks.com *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Mar 24 2007 - 02:14:00 PDT
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