A lot of snorkelers are using their lungs for buoyancy control so they can dive down and slowly exhale through the nose.
It depends on the experience you seek I guess.
I’ll admit safety is not my first priority but there’s a lot to be said for developing breath control and swimming skills. I’m not sure that can be achieved wearing a life jacket.
There is a lot of sea life that isn’t seen if you are kicking around on the surface.
It’s not used for buoyancy control, it’s a surface floatation aid that can be inflated and deflated on the fly to give you as much or as little flotation as you want, including zero when you don’t need it or want to dive. I haven’t tried it myself, but the kids were able to dive underwater with it deflated.
I don’t believe it would work for me but I am all for people doing whatever they want.
I first got into kayaking to get to the reef and I still enjoy a swim off my kayak.
In our hometown of Gig Harbor, the kayak canoe racing team (gold medal winner) don’t wear PFDs and individuals kayak in varying styles for different objectives.
Some say “always” excludes a lot of classifications of paddlers.
Nevin Harrison, a 19-year-old Seattle native who has trained in the past with the Gig Harbor Canoe and Kayak Racing Team, has won a gold medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
That’s true, but sprint racers are in very controlled conditions. They are not going to hit a rock, find themselves above a dangerous strainer, or get hit by a rogue wave. Slalom racers on the other hand are required to wear a PFD. To your point, it is a light weight, slimed down version, but they are required to wear it. Not sure what either of those points says about the average paddler on this board. We don’t have exceptional skills, paddle in controlled conditions, or have coaches watching our every move. Its a given that there are paddling groups (like racers and SUP paddlers) where the PFD culture isn’t as strong. I don’t do either, so it doesn’t effect me one way or the other. I make my decision based on the paddling that I do and the likely, or more importantly unlike conditions that I could find myself in. Everyone’s risk tolerance is different. I choose to put on the PFD. That’s the right answer for me. Might not be for others, but that’s OK.
Okay but it’s not a conversation for a discussion thread if everyone paddles the same way and posts the same thing. The OP didn’t stipulate any of your conditions.
Not only does it appear most racers do not wear them (subject to club rules), racing sculls, shells, canoes and kayaks are exempt from even having them aboard by 33 CFR §175.17.
State rules may be different. In RI, not only do you need to have a PFD, you need to have it on at all times:
In real life it is totally unenforceable. I see people without PFD’s on all the time.
p.s. this should have been in response to RC51Mike
This is the RI official guide and does look like it might be out of date but, does have an exemption for racing. In adopting the requirement that everyone has to wear a pfd, they would have to rescind the exemption language in the state code as well if they intended that racers have to comply.
“Exemptions
1.Racing shells, Rowing sculls, racing kayaks, and any other vessel engaged in a sanctioned regatta, race or a practice held within 48 hours of the sanctioned event are exempt from § 1.7 of this Part.
2.Canoes, kayaks, sailboards, kiteboards and paddleboards 16 feet (4.9 meters) in length and greater are exempted from the carriage requirements of having one throwable PFD on board the vessel.”
Unfortunately racers are not immune from drowning . There have been several instances where that has occured. One of the posts was about a coach of a crew team a year or so ago.
Depends on the local authorities. In Annapolis you used to see people on SUPs without PFDs all the time or with Type Vs, but not wearing them.
After about a month of warnings, a flurry of $125 tickets ($250 if also no whistle or approved sound producing device) ended that pretty quickly.
The USCG and many local authorities have been reconsidering PFD requirements for some time due to the increasing death rate involving canoes, kayaks and other small craft while the death rate for other types of vessels has been decreasing.
It depends on the temperature of the water and the air tem. In very cold water one can start to have muscle spasms and having a great deal of difficult getting back up on a kayak if one is not wearing a full wetsuit. In cold weather and with a wind chill the PFD works for me as a waterproof vest and keeps my upper torso much warmer.
In the ocean or doing river running a PFD is essential. Important to have a PFD that is designed for use with a kayak.
Like when i ride a motorcycle, all it takes is a small bump on the head even while sitting at a traffic light to knock you out…you can drown in inches of water facedown. The PFD would lift you above that.
Plus do you really want your family to go without you just cause you didnt feel like wearing it? My Chinnok is pretty comfy. Even if the PFD is near you, if you fall out how would you reach it?
Here’s an aspect to always wearing one’s PFD which I suspect becomes an issue every once in a while. This isn’t life or death but it will surely matter for someone out there, someday.
If you always wear it, you won’t leave it behind after you stop for a break, because getting into the boat without it just won’t feel right. Years ago I read an article in ‘Boundary Waters Journal’ by some guy who was describing a great solo trip that he took by canoe, except that one day was kind of ruined when he had to backtrack quite a long distance just to retrieve his PFD from the last place he had stopped for a break. This would not have happened if he had been in the habit of wearing the thing.
This kind of stuff really happens. I buddy of mine used to ride motorcycles a lot. He only wore his helmet about half the time, and the rest of the time he strapped it to the bike, just so he’d always have it with him. Sure enough, one day he realized that he had no helmet and he could NOT remember where he might have been when it took it off that final time, which could have been as much as two days earlier. It was a top-of-the-line helmet too so this was a very expensive mistake. Again, he wouldn’t have left it behind if he had been in the habit of wearing it.
When I have been teaching wet exits and rescues one of the things we used to do is ask people to try and put on their PFD when in deep water. This is without dealing with the conditions that have put them in the water in a real life situation. Now try and consider putting it on when trying to hold on to your boat and any loose gear, assuming you haven’t lost hold of your boat. If you have lost hold of your boat, there goes your PFD. You should never lose hold of your boat, but it happens.
Many people find a self rescue very difficult without the extra buoyancy provided by a PFD.
Personally, I don’t find a PFD to cause overheating. You can always take your hat and pour water on yourself. As far as a sprayskirt, if the water is cooler that the air temperature, the interior of a kayak likely will be cooler than the air temperature as well. Plus it keeps the sun off of your legs. Chef’s generally wear heavy cotton jackets to keep the radiant heat off of them.
In my mind a spray skirt is an integral part of a sea kayak in open water, not an optional accessory.
A friend of mine recently ran a group trip. The temperature was in the upper 90s. A couple of people elected to not fasten their spray skits. As soon as they got away from the protected launch, their kayaks were swamped. The whole group had to wait until they pumped out their boats and fastened their spray skirts that they had on but had not fastened. The wind was only about 10 kts.
Tbh, I haven’t read every post in this thread. I paddle stable rec kayaks near the shore on calm lakes. I don’t always wear a pfd. I know shit can happen, but on a calm day on a warm lake near shore, I take that risk. I always have situational awareness, though. I watch for boats (who are generally already in the no-wake zone), and I watch the weather. I know weather can change quickly, especially in the south in the summer.
I also know that people always say don’t hook your dog to you. Well, I do that, too. I’m a stronger swimmer than she is, plus I have a quick-release carabiner. If she wanted to jump off the SOT, it would be safer and easier for me to drag her back over than for me to jump off the boat, swim after her, and then try to get us both back up there.
I’ve paddled further out on lakes, and then definitely with a pfd. Also on rivers…a pfd for sure. I’ve been on the Edisto, considered flatwater, and it was dangerous on the bends.
Read medical artcles on drowning. As best they can tell, it happens very fast , as in seconds, after a bit of struggle. Doesn’t matter how deep the water is.
I’m not following. If you don’t hook her to you or the boat, then she just jumps off and goes for a swim and you paddle over to her and help her aboard when she’s had enough swimming. If you do hook her to you, then you turn it into a tug of war and possibly capsize, and risk making it easier for her to drown. I hope it’s a long leash at least.
Long enough, definitely. She’s not an off-leash dog except in an enclosed dog park or yard.
Maybe it depends on the size of the dog? My 70 lb shepherd mix is a challenging girl, but a 10-25 pounder would likely be a different situation
Great documentary here on a mundane canoe trip and how it turn the corner quickly
