That’s why I eat potato chips. Less processing than mashing potatoes. Just open the bag. They eve. Have the right amount of salt. Im going paddling . . .
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So in a nutshell. we all have different ideas on what is an acceptable level of risk in life, a personal choice….many of them are matters of life and death. Choose yours, I’ll choose mine….freedom
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I stopped taking the hand pump and the paddle float. A friend wears a leather speedo and takes a rubber chicken.
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That’s a great idea. Well, the rubber chicken. Not so sure about the leather Speedo.
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That’s the point, everyone is not paddling in those conditions all the time, so mature, experienced people can make assessments based on a number of factors and reasonably and responsibly decide to not wear a PFD.
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I don’t feel men should be body shamed for wearing a speedo. Women wouldn’t tolerate it so let’s have some body positivity for old men!
I wouldn’t want to swim in those billowy soggy board shorts.
I took this at lunch and it must be true love! 
I hope we are like that when we are their age.
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I conceder us friends on the forum and I understand your philosophy on the subject.
I will take the part of devils advocate here and give you my take.
An individual activity like all personal freedoms ends when they encroach on someone else freedom. If I’m paddling down our river and come up on someone in deep cold water and they strike up a conversation and I learn they can’t swim I may suggest they put on their PFD before I paddle off not insisting they do so. After all it is their one life to live how they wish. On the other hand if I’m going out with a group and I could be the leader or organizer of the outing and as going together there is an assumption that if one of us gets in trouble the others will help us. I’m committing to the group I will help and would like to be helped myself just as I don’t want to be drowned helping someone in trouble I have to feel all our odds are improved if we all PFD up. If the group has a rule even if just implied then it is not unreasonable to insist the rule be followed.
In my canoe I wear my PFD and also carry a flotation cushion that is made to be thrown. I use it for several things when paddling, but I also have it as a way of offering help to anyone I don’t know and don’t know what risk I would put myself in trying to rescue them. If nothing more than an interim step in the rescue process.
It is quite a bit different than the million other health risks like diet etc where my freedom is not going to overlap with someone else’s freedoms.
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As a healthcare professional, your diet choices could very well require me to perform life saving measures on you. I have put myself in harms way many times to save others from their lifestyle choices.
My decision to not wear a pfd in no way obligates you or anyone to save my life or recover my body. In fact I’d prefer if you didn’t tbh. My family agrees
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I don’t agree for several reasons. The cost of medical care isa threat to our national security and is on track to bankrupt our nation.
I’ve spent over a decade of my career rescuing people on an air ambulance trauma team and we don’t penalize people for being “stupid” and this is not consistent with post enlightenment humanitarian principles.
I appreciate your passion for this controversial topic but remember, it’s not illegal. For that reason, it doesn’t matter unless I want to join a club which I don’t. We look for the most remote places we can find and we are consistent with the cultural norms
where we paddle.
I respect people’s different opinions when presented rationally and earnestly, that is the point of discussion.
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I can’t tell you how much the last few years have changed me because I used to care what people think and now I do not.
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I always wear one. no excuses. Our Club requires a properly worn PFD for all on-water trips and events.
I’ve always admired people that love their boats so much that they fasten a PFD on their deck or behind their seats to save the boat in the event of a catastrophe.
One of the things we do when teaching wet exits is to have people try to put a PFD on in the water while trying to hold onto their boat, paddle, and any loose gear. Not an easy task even in dead calm water. And some people have a very hard time with a self rescue without the extra buoyancy that a PFD supplies.
A properly worn PFD also saves first responders time, effort, and risk searching the waters waiting for your body to bloat enough to come to the surface.
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When you need a lifejacket, you need it immediately. You do not have time to come to the surface and go looking for it. If someone in my party capsizes or falls out of a boat, then it is my responsibility to go find them. It is a lot easier with a lifejacket.
rstevens15 is right on. Wear one for the first responders risking their safety to come and make it easier for them to come and find you.
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How do they get in the water without a pfd on?
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Always, same as I always use my seat belts when driving.
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Well its a good thing you didn’t faint, fall out and then float face down.
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Yep, but I don’t always need it. I know, I know, but “you never know”; “I might have a medical emergency or I might hit my head, etc…”. Those are risks that I can address and control in the environments I paddle, and sometimes the PFD isn’t necessary to do so. That may not be true for you and your paddling, but that doesn’t make it untrue for me.
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Please share with us how you “address and control” the possibility of experiencing a medical emergency.
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Same thing I do no matter what I’m doing; eat healthy and exercise. In actuality, a PFD does not address or control the possibility of experiencing a medical emergency. It might keep you afloat, but then again with the PFDs that most people wear that might be face down and do nothing to help you in your health emergency. Additionally, if you’re experiencing a medical emergency depending on the emergency and where you’re paddling, you may not receive the necessary care in time anyway, so PFD or not you’re still dead.
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Follow the law.
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No problem, I do.
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