I've, once again, learned a lot from the discussion and want to express my appreciation for the thoughtful posts. I sort of feel a bit something, maybe guilt, about expressing my opinions about not wearing a lifejacket all the time because I know that maximum safety requires wearing one almost all the time. But we all take some risks when we paddle. The only safe ship is the one that never leaves the dock. Darryl wrote about not helping idiots. As an occasional idiot, I protest. Helping those in peril or in need of assistance puts, as Ed Viesturs says, a deposit in your Karma National Bank account. I've made some big withdrawals on mine and have even had to borrow against future deposits a few times. My professional life involves helping idiots and I find it satisfying in a 'thank goodness that's not me facing thirty years in prison' sort of way. Doug and Peter mentioned paddling in open water and I agree that paddling open water requires better anticipation of risks than my own usual paddling which is on Illinois rivers and tiny lakes. Lake Michigan never finds me without my lifejacket on. Ditto using the lifejacket as a gear caddy as Craig mentions. When paddling alone on a millpond I need no gear. When my lifejacket is on, so is my knife, line cutter, towline and carabiners. Niels doesn't like to paddle with people he feels aren't being safe. And I always wear my lifejacket when paddling with others just to put the Niels' of the world at ease. I would not be comfortable, either, paddling with anyone who was not being safe. I liked Scott's comment about 'mindlessly chanting popular dogma.' There are a number of paddlers I know who could rescue anyone in almost any conditions but they can't paddle in a straight line. They can hardly lift their lifejacket for all the stuff attached and yet are, at best, low intermediate paddlers. They think their behavior screams "Oooo - I'm a big time risk taker and you can tell by all the stuff I need to survive." Like it or not, kayaking is not a high risk activity and emphasizing safety over skills doesn't change that. Very few paddlers die or get hurt in this sport, even including some of the wild whitewater stuff that is done. If anything, kayaking is too safe which leads to complacency. Try as we will, we rarely kill ourselves. I certainly almost never kill myself. End of sermon. Jim Tibensky *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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