Re: [Paddlewise] PFDs

"Bradford R. Crain"  wrote:


>>>>>When I bought my paddling jacket, there was a choice of blue or orange,
the jackets being identical otherwise. I wanted the blue one, but the
salesperson said if I took the orange one, they would give me a $50
discount. Without using a calculator, I took the orange one. Years later,
I finally figured out their strategy...they wanted to keep me alive so that
I would come back and buy some more stuff.<<<<<<<<<



Sorry to disillusion you Brad, but if the shop really cared about you they
probably wouldn't carry the blue color at all. Or maybe just keep a few blue
ones around so they could say that they could sell you a blue like the next
shop down the street but would prefer not to because you would be much safer
wearing orange.



Back when I worked for Early Winters in the late 1970's they came out with
some pile garments (this was about when pile garments first came out). The
color choice was blue or orange and we had made an equal number of each color.
They had so many orange ones left by the time the next catalog came out (6
month's later so they could raise prices again as inflation raged on and wiped
out their profit if they didn't) the marketing genius thought he had the
solution. In the earlier catalog a blue jacket was featured. So, having the
faith in advertising that he had, he decided to feature the orange garments in
all the new catalog pictures. All that did was mean was that Early Winters
sold a lot less of those garments in either color until the next catalog came
out six month later and the mistake could be corrected.



So I suspect the paddling shop was willing to give you that $50 discount
because that was the only way they could unload that orange turkey (before it
became an obsolete model and worth even less).


I'm not a fanatic about PFD use and always hated to have to wear one when I
raced because overheating was often an issue for me. I once made the mistake
of racing in one without a T-shirt under it on a hot day (when wearing a PFD
had been required by the race organizers). Big mistake! It rubbed my nipples
so raw on the nylon that they still seem overly sensitive to friction over 25
years later.



I have no problem with any group requiring much of anything they want of those
that want to join them. Nobody is forcing me to join there group. I'll
strongly oppose any law that enforces compliance on behavior that doesn't harm
others though.



I'd prefer those I paddle with wear PFD's and might even ask them to wear one
so any picture I might take with them anywhere in the photo would be saleable
if I wanted to sell it. One paddler I paddled on the Northwest coast of
Vancouver Island with didn't wear a PFD but this same paddler had previously
paddled the entire outer coast between Seattle and Glacier Bay (much of it
solo) so I figured he had earned the right make up his own mind about paddling
related things. As he was a semi-professional photographer (and has at least
two Sea Kayaker magazine covers to his credit) he did relate to my photo/model
argument but his PFD was so ratty (and to add insult to injury, a faded orange
too) that a photo with him in it wouldn't likely to be used by anyone anyhow.
These days you couldn't easily edit a PFD deficient paddler right out of the
picture. At least if they were in the background. One of his pictures from our
trip was the first photo (and the only one I know of) that Sea Kayaker ever
altered. It was a great photo of the third paddler in our trio surfing
straight at the camera, but the paddler's face was too shaded and dark so Sea
Kayaker wasn't going to use it. I suggested they could selectively lighten
just the paddlers face in the print they would make from the slide and they
did. I was in that picture frame too but you can't see me because I was
completely obscured by the wave the subject was surfing.
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