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
I always wear
my PFD. Despite being a good swimmer and having never capsized in a multitude of years of shoreline paddling, I always wear it to avoid the most certain overzealous torrent of wrath and judgement to ensue.
Very much my thought…
– Last Updated: Jan-31-14 10:39 PM EST –
the rescue part - where flexibility is often the key. I just failed to say it earlier.
I always wear a PFD
Everybody I paddle with always wears a PFD, and there is never any discussion about it - everyone just puts it on. Fortunately for me its not an issue.
I sincerely hope
the Groundhog does not see his shadow tomorrow.
This pack can’t stand another 6 weeks of winter.
In answer to the OP question, yes, always. Sometimes just an inflatable, but always.
When I first started paddling, I never did. Now I always do.
Ya think? 
“PFD industry” does not equal "industry
If you’re going to argue, at least get your quotes correct.
Judging by your failure to pay attention someone actually says, it is no wonder that you have adopted the solution that requires no thought.
No point in any further debate with someone like you…
No one posting here has drowned
So, whatever the current posters here are doing with PFD’s, it must be working so far.
It is probably because…
those of us in the north have had limited chance to actually get on the water outside of a pool since the launches froze over. Though people have drowned in a bathtub, so maybe it is just luck.
The ones who drowned
would be posting: Wear your frackin’ PFD!
Most of the time
The only exception is if it is really hot and humid and I start sweating underneath it and it gets miserable I will take it off and put it under the deck bungees.
We Both Failed…
– Last Updated: Feb-02-14 7:40 PM EST –
Pikabike, we've both failed miserably to address the really important part of this whole thread, don't you think?: Whether I misquoted when I used the term "PFD Industry" (I did), and then whether your own posting of "Industry" was a misquote (it was). We both know, or should know, or should have remembered, that your original accusation was that my posts "reek of an agenda tied to business interests." Yes, you actually posted that--go check. You are so cruel, so mean! And it hurts so much!!