At their ancient ages, maybe they decided it was time to go.
Wow! Some heartless remarks. I hope no relatives or friends are forum members.
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They wouldnât have taken the kid would they? But I can see where they might take a chance not wearing the PFD cause of the long life. âŚand habits.
StringâŚancient agesâŚyou speaking from experience? 
Watch it. There are plenty of people still running rivers at 70 and over and I am one of themâŚ
How many times have we thought âWhat were they thinking?â And weâll never know.
As for ancient, l know paddlers who are considerably older than they were.
Me too.
Thereâs an insensitive, repugnant and loathsome comment if I ever saw one. Would you show up at the funeral and say that to their family? Maybe you would. They made an unfortunate fatal decision. That doesnât obviate any sense of basic human compassion. But then that seems to be running in short supply these days.
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This thread has stirred up a discussion that I hadnât intended to be a condemnation of the grandparents if thatâs how itâs being taken. I donât believe they were guilty of anything other than being victims of a cultural norm that enables carelessness and stubbornness about wearing personal flotation while paddling. The reasons people give for not wearing a PFD are many but the outcomes are the same when things go wrong. This incidence happened to be a glaringly tragic example of that phenomenon. And although a bit raw, Dagoâs posts acknowledge the willful disregard for safety shown by far too many paddlers. Itâs not necessarily ignorance, itâs more often complacency, that kills people.
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I came to this forum a month or so ago having bought my first canoe but being a life long boater growing up on Lake Erie. I thought I would be learning the mechanics of paddle boats and I have, but I also appreciate the dedication to safety this forum promotes. I grew up in a different age jumping around loose in the back seat of a car that didnât even come with seatbelts and riding in the open back of pickup trucks and water skiing with a little foam belly belt. Even smoking was something athletes indorsed. Older people grew up with less thought about safety but that doesnât dismiss your ability to learn as you go.
The idea of you have always done it this way and I might add got away with it is not a valid argument. I do believe in freedom of choice and that includes freedom to be stupid, up to the point your freedom is putting someone else at risk and that IMO is the case here.
I was lucky as a young man to make many trips down to WV and rafted all their great rivers with outfitters and guides and even in the early 70s they really stressed safety and it was no issue doing it as everyone else was and if you didnât you didnât get out on the water. When you own your equipment there is a feeling of do what you want and do what others are doing. We now live on this slow moving French Creek at least most of the year and it gets a lot of cheap kayak traffic with no flotation and the life jacket rules say they are only needed during cold water season. So the majority of people assume when the water is warm and not all that warm it is ok to use them as a back cushion. Combine that with a lot of drinking on the creek and every years we hear of another mishap.
I once told a guy âDid you know that 50% of the people are below average intelligence?â He said no way it couldnât be that high. I said I rest my case.
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Iâm unsure if new members are directed to the FAQ when they sign up. If not, they should be.
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makes sense.
Wouldnât it be 50 percent of the people are below the mean?
Some people need the police to remind them to wear their PFDs. Then again that could be what it takes to save some lives.
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I think you meant that question for someone else. My comment was about pComâs FAQ.
I donât think the new guy needs to re-read the FAQ.
From there
âResponding to a postâs tone instead of its actual contentâ
Many reasons why people who should know better, donât. As has been stated here, people have a free choice in such things. I come from a military background so I see things pretty clearly and am a bit direct, especially when someoneâs life is on the line.
On the bright side, we took the canoe/kayak out today. Eagles, cranes, and fish by the dozens were out there with us as we practiced our strokes. It was good times.
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Yes mean, as the mean number in any population is the middle and the average can be different than the mean based around the distribution. My comment was only approximately correct assuming a symmetrical bell curve of the data.
For pointing that out it clearly puts you in the upper half of the mean population.
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I appreciate that!
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mean, median and mode
if our respective populations understood math/statistics better, we might have better leadership.
Nah, we get the governance we deserve.
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