Do you wear your PFD (open water)

My Best Example

– Last Updated: Jan-30-14 7:26 PM EST –

Pikabike, your first post cements firmly into place exactly the nature of the "deciding" syndrome that developing a robust PFD habit can help you overcome. You will be free of needing to again and again travel the decision tree: Are we on a lake? How big or small is the lake? Is it small and/or sheltered? How big is "big"? How sheltered is "sheltered"? Or are we on a river? Are we on the ocean? If so, how warm is the air? the water? Am I in a sheltered bay? Will I stay in that bay? Faced with all those factors and variables, a caterpillar would have trouble figuring out how to walk, let alone whether or not it should wear a PFD.

So what your saying c-runner is …

– Last Updated: Jan-30-14 9:24 PM EST –

you just throw on your pfd and go because thinking about water temps, conditions, size of the body of water are to time consuming or takes too much thought?
Your just a pfd covered accident waiting to happen!!!!

Good grief!!
Are you serious? If it’s an attempt at humor, it’s just, well, strange, though it IS funny in a different kind of way. If you are serious, and if this is how you interpret Pika’s and others’ remarks about recognizing benign conditions, surely it means you must go through hell yourself when deciding between wearing a winter coat or just a long-sleeved shirt, as dictated by the weather outside. Maybe even deciding between a winter coat and a swimsuit is enough to drive you bonkers. It appears possible.


Reading the responses here.
I think three quarters of you are so paranoid about it being a must to wear your PFD, that you would be a lot safer if you gave up paddling and just never went near water.



Guy

Paranoia?
Paranoia doesn’t come into it. Safety, common sense and intelligence does.

Inevitably these “discussions” rot
into stupidity and silliness.



I think I will go paddling. I will be putting on my PFD without a second of thought.

Kayaking, PFDs, and Non-Sequiturs
Jaws, I’ll reply to your question with one of my own: Do you expect your non-sequitur “question” to be taken as serious argument? Please try again. Ditto Guideboatguy and Roanguy (are you twins?)

I missed the ritual part
Candles, prayer, maybe some trail mix?



:wink:

what is clearly most important here
…is finding crap to pick at in the people whose opinions oppose yours.



Good grief. The OP asked a simple question.

S’cuse me
I know and have paddled with pikabike, and in some interesting conditions. Suggesting that she is somehow paralyzed from making decisions because she might leave the PFD off to laze near shore in quiet water on a hot day is about as far from reality as you could go.



I am guessing you are either an engineer or an academic. Both seem prone to hyperbole when they try to summarize grand thoughts online.

Good Gracious…
The thought that a serious discussion of an issue should break out! To wear or not wear a PFD while paddling open water (Always), and then to discuss all the infinite gradations and variations of when to wear or not wear the PFD–what if (horrors) there should be differing opinions on a serious matter?



There is a powerful case to be made for developing a strong PFD habit, and it rests upon the well-understood and recognized utility of other good, strong habits such as wearing seatbelts while driving, brushing one’s teeth, etc. I hope we can all understand that, by climbing into our cockpits with our PFDs on, we have thus short-circuited out almost all of the possibility that we will come to fatal harm from lack of sufficient buoyancy. We will also be protected to a certain extent against impact injury, and, should the worst happen, the CG or Marine Police will have better luck retrieving the body. Against these strong arguments, supported by just about every group or association or body involved with boating, we have “I don’t feel like it.” or, “I’ve given the situation a lot of analysis, and I’m sure I’ll be just fine.”, or, “Nobody tells me what to do!”



I think these things are worth discussing.

An academic, right?
Gotta be…

It’s just an analogy

– Last Updated: Jan-31-14 1:33 PM EST –

I can't understand how a choice that can be made in a moment's application of logic needs to be seen as such a crippling process for the person involved. Your escalation of this is pretty amazing.

You like that seatbelt analogy, so consider this. If I'm driving a big truck in a very low gear through a cornfield and I don't wear my seatbelt, does that mean my seatbelt habit isn't well enough established for me to be safe while driving? (in actual fact, I'd probably wear my seatbelt at least sometimes in that situation because "something doesn't feel right" when it's not buckled, but sometimes I wouldn't, because the thinking part of me knows perfectly well that there is NO way that not wearing it can be considered a safety issue right at that moment since a person can walk twice as fast as what the truck would go even if the gas pedal were accidentally floored). In this case, would you do the same as you did with Pikabike and say something that implies that surely I wasted unnecessary time and went through some degree of mental anguish deciding whether or not the belt was necessary at that moment? My point, which somehow you missed, is that you are making this much harder than it needs to be. No one agonizes over the decision in the way you say that they do.

Oh, and here's a perfect analogy that everyone here can relate to. When walking in the woods we wear shoes to protect our feet (not just a comfort issue but one of safety as well). If I wake up in my tent at 3:00 am and need to take a pee, I might not to put on my shoes. I won't be walking that far and need not worry about hurting myself, so why bother. To you, such a decision would be a "ritual" and habits are preferable to rituals. To me and anyone I know personally, not only is it not a ritual, it's not even something to dwell upon, much less turn into a major discussion.

Always…

– Last Updated: Jan-31-14 1:19 PM EST –

An' yer reckon why? Cuz, ah's gots "heavy fat" an' sink like a lead bag full o' Kryptonite - dats why! Even a standard 16.5 lbs. lifevest ain't 'nuff ta keep dis varmint afloat.

Waan me carries a VHF radio (required fer National Canoe Safety Patrol duty on de Upper Delaware River) it's in me lifevest pocket.

Ah' poysonally dun't do much "open water" me'self. Mostly rivers an' kreks an' ah' dun'y care iffin' it be 1" or 100' deep, hot or cold, miserable or not - ah's always waars it an' zipped up.

FE -

Ritual reserved for prepping trailer
I have two rituals (PLEC and BATHS) when using the trailer, both intended to prevent creating a hazard for anybody else:



Place (coupler securely on ball)

Lock (coupler’s latch–another way to ensure that the placement is secure)

Electrical (connect the trailer’s wiring to the truck’s)

Chains (hook them up)



and



Bearings check (for signs of grease leakage)

Air pressure check

Tread wear check

Hatch covers secure

Straps check



The acronyms help me go through the list systematically.

Making mountain out of molehill again

– Last Updated: Jan-31-14 1:37 PM EST –

Apparently, you have chosen to target my posts, perhaps because they are articulate?

You're repeating yourself, so I'll repeat myself: the decision to make an exception is not hard nor does it take "agonization."

Not everybody dithers over these kinds of decisions. If you do, you've found YOUR solution, so your continued harassment of other people's decisions reeks of an agenda tied to business interests.

P.S.
If you truly find it so laborious and slow to make these kinds of decisions, I hate to think what you're like when something unexpected happens on the water. Yikes.

No Cigar
Some responses to my posts I can easily dismiss, not as replies, but rather as involuntary spasms. Others, though, become so tortured as to cause actual pain, probably both to their authors and to the readers. Guideboatguy, I suggest that you carefully re-read your post–talk about crippling decision/indecision syndrome! Why not just buckle your seatbelt or put on your PFD and cut the Gordian Knot. Break Free! But it may be that “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach.”

well when you’re ready then lead the way

– Last Updated: Jan-31-14 2:36 PM EST –

...because most of your posts have obsessed over people who make different decisions than you do, and ridiculed and misrepresented simple decision-making on the part of those who decide not to wear a PFD. Even after they tell you it's a simple decision.

I'd cite more needless mudslinging but despite your feigned indignation, I trust you can probably find it for yourself.

Disappointment!
Slushpaddler, I’m disappointed by the thinness of your skin when it comes to discussing this PFD issue, one you wholly agree with me on. You and several of my other critics flail away at me with ad hominem nonsense, rather than robustly defending your various points of view. I’ve actually been called an “academic”, an “engineer”, somebody with close ties to the PFD industry–Oooo, the pain! Of COURSE I have opinions about PFD wearing that are at variance with some of your friends (not you, as you well know), but I thought, obviously wrongly, that you were up for vigorous discussion. I was wrong.

I carry an inflatable as a spare NM