Then don’t worry about what anyone thinks. I have reasons why I do what I do, and I share it. Because I always put my car keys in the same place when I get home doesn’t mean you have to, even if you often misplace your keys in your home. I can warn you that you could break your neck and die if you water ski. Even if it’s valid advice, you don’t have to follow it. If you’re following the law, everyone who stays awake at night worrying that you may drown while boating is going to have many sleepless nights.
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I know we love to debate this, but in my real-world paddling life it is a non-issue. I have 10-years worth of pictures on Flickr - close to 700 trips, over 10,000 pictures (there are some hiking pictures in there as well), and you would be hard pressed to find a picture of someone on the water in a boat not wearing a PFD. It just doesn’t happen. In my circle of paddling friends and acquaintances everyone wears a PFD. Maybe its a regional thing here in the New England (but I do paddle with friends from “Live Free or Die” New Hampshire). Maybe it is my club and whitewater background. I know there are groups where the culture on PFD-use is not quite as strong - racers, SUP’ers - but I don’t travel in those circles. Maybe the folks who are less adamant about PFD-use just avoid us - that’s probably it. 
To each his own…
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Good advice, and I said I didn’t need to explain or that I would explain myself, so I’m out. Another thread to ignore.
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I also don’t wear one when swim training, an arguably much more potentially dangerous activity although I do tether to an open water swim buoy for alerting.
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Do some rescue practice. Try it with PFDs and try it without.
You don’t do rescue practice? That’s why you don’t see the urgency.
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We practice exit and deep water re entry regularly. We also practice in big water and fast moving. Two weeks ago we practiced in 4 foot offshore waves in the Gulf of Mexico to prepare for Texas Water Safari.
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Eat well and exercise … also, don’t smoke, only consume alcohol sparingly, and don’t run with scissors. It’s all good, every day advice.
However, I choose to do more in circumstances where risk is elevated … helmets when riding bicycles, boots in rattler country, and PFDs on the water.
While it’s absolutely true that emergency services may not always be around when needed, using that fact as justification for taking more risk makes no sense to me.
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“To you” is the key here. He does what makes sense to him…. I’ll never understand the interest in helmetless motorcycle riding, but would never tell someone they shouldn’t do it in states where it’s allowed. Freedom
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Well with a PFD if you’re still dead at least they can recover the body easier…don’t have to wait till it is bloated and 1/2 decayed.
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Yes we all understand that. Most of us that don’t wear it 100% of the time are still capable of evaluating water conditions and are not likely to be on large open water crossings or dangerous situations without wearing one. Not everything is as black n white or extreme as the internet makes it seem. The events and circumstances I would not be wearing a pfd would rarely lead to an extravagant search and rescue operation. Im still not wearing it in the shower tho
Again, I would never tell anyone it’s ok to go on the water without wearing it so this is not an endorsement for doing as I do. But I appreciate the freedom to exercise my own discretion within the boundaries of law
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For the most part I don’t hear anyone saying they don’t, not ever, under any circumstance ever wear a PFD. It is more along the OPs first thoughts Of I carry one according to the law and put it on and off according to how I access the situation based around my own personal set of skills and the conditions.
That’s the definition of freedom to choose.
I routinely paddle on a river that has deep slow water and faster shallow water. At worst if it had a lifeguard every 100’ could be a lazy river ride at any water park. Now if we get 3” of water over night it could be a whole different animal. In the spring there are ice jams and ice dams and a few new submerged huge trees that had toppled in. It’s pretty common during this “killing season” to have days that are sunny and in the mid 60 where the water barely is to 40, and I see people heading out.
I will admit there are times in the summer the water is lukewarm and I know I won’t see water deeper than one foot for the next two hours and if it is feeling hot I will unzip the PFD and let it dangle. I’m about as proactive as they come and realize my risk factor is pretty low when I pass a family with a one year old they are letting splash in the water on their own while being watched closely.
The problem for me is the same as the seatbelt analogy do you put it on to drive from the driveway to the garage. Do you buckle the kids into their car seats to drive them to the end of the driveway to catch the school bus on a cold or rainy morning. Do you let your 7 year old sit on your lap when mowing the open back yard just because it is fun for them. Life is risk/rewards and there is always a fine line that maybe is a moving line depending on things.
There is two ways to look at it and I can actually see both sides maybe because I grew up in a different time. There is the black/white process and it is foolproof just always follow a simple rule and its not perfect but will produce the best outcome. Always wear your seatbelt even if only driving 20’ into the garage. Then there is trying to figure out all the time where the limit is at today. Applying the risk/reward formula. I’m only driving to the corner to buy milk top speed 15mph on a residential two-lane road. You have to know at what point you will cross your own line.
As a kid my dad told me I was old enough to mow the lawn. He showed me where the gas went how to check the oil etc. He then showed me by sticking his shoe under the non running mower saying stick your foot here or here and you will cut off your toes. He then gave me a few more pointers about where stones will fly out and hitting the car or breaking a basement window. We then started the mower and he stood there for 5-10 minutes watching and he went in the house. There was an implied situational awareness to growing up then. I sometimes wonder if many people no longer get that.
My last thought is lead by example. If you learned to paddle in scouting it was simple you just followed the rules. Parents teaching kids to enjoy the water I think should insist the kids wear PFDs as it’s the law, but then it seems like a good idea if the parents do the same. I wont delude myself though that a bunch of young people in old rec-kayaks is going to take a look at me in a canoe with a PFD on and all of a sudden see the light. It is far more likely they will offer me a beer.
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There are a number of stories where a boat capsized with the kids wearing a PFD but the parents not wearing one. The kids survived while the parents did not. In other cases, the parents without a PFD were not able to assist their kids or others because they were struggling to tread water and stay afloat themselves.
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Of Course BSA policy is that everyone when on the water always wear their PFD, 100% regardless of age, claimed ability, or experience. But we all know of especially the older scoutmasters who have all the usual excuses, if not a “medical conditon” on why they cannot or don’t need to wear one. But they must, just the same or they can be excluded from any water related activities in, or out of camp while in BSA activities.
So when I participate as instructor in BSA High adventure guide trek leader training for those typical college age (or older) folks who are applying for a summer trek leader job at a youth summer camp, I may role play that stubborn scoutmaster. After my own small group of students departs the launch in canoes, I follow in my solo canoe, often without having a PFD on or on incorrectly. Once I am (hopefully) noticed, I will give the first designated student “Leader of the Day” (LOD) all the excuses and argue strongly why I don’t need to wear that dang uncomfortable thing. Eventually, all in the trek get to hear every excuse and rationale and to handle the incident forcefully, if necessary, and respectfully before I relent and properly wear my PFD with reasons why I should. When on a BSA led trek, the guiide is “the law”. Any accompanying scoutmaster (there must be at least one other adult in addition to the 18+ yr old guide), will handle usual other troop problems and be a good example.
Often later during the next few days I will at times role play by now the well known persona of troublesome, incompetent “Bobby scout” in various situations to test the LOD’s leadership skills with him on and off the water. Sometimes mean crotchety old “Mr. Finkelstien scoutmaster” will appear to test other social handling skils of the LOD.
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Same here.
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A few years ago I was taking a class at the original BodyBoatBlade on Orcas Island. Part of the class was a paddle out to and overnight on Suchi. A group of young adults, maybe a church group of some sort, showed up and camped next to us. The next morning as wen pulling on our drysuits, the kids were getting on the water in cutoff shorts, cotton t-shirts and giving our group odd looks.
One of our group remarked that the kids probably wondered why we were wearing hazmat suits, to which Shawna, the BBB leader, replied, “yeah, we’re known as the ‘extreme paddlers’ on Orcas” because we wear drysuits.”
At least the kids all had PFDs on.
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MohaveFlyer,
Agree with you wholeheartedly. Used to care what people think, not so much any more. We all have to deal with our own mortality and we all do it differently.
Life is to short, live it
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Exactly. When I explain what I do, my hope is to help a few fence-sitters gather information so they can decide what makes sense to them. People generally don’t like being told what to do so I try to avoid shoulding on them. And those who are already set in their ways aren’t going to change their minds based on what someone they don’t know says on a forum like this anyway.
I’m not even bothered by helmetless motorcyclists … as long as they don’t have any dependents at home and as long as they don’t expect taxpayers to foot the bill when they need their brains stuffed back in their skulls at the E.R.
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Some people like the sensual feeling of the sun and the water and the breeze on their skin. I like to jump in and swim below the surface and climb back.
My experience doesn’t involve other people.
I’m not a nudist, just a half nudist.
My time outdoors in nature is about more than avoiding death. I am high as a kite when out there. I’m sorry but I don’t feel the same with a rash guard and a tight PFD. When I get to the little island we paddle to, we climb around on rocks and a drysuit with neck gaskets doesn’t work for me. I am betting that I calculate well enough to stay alive and I get a pleasure from that.
I don’t want to have a leader or a club, I just like figuring it out. I am okay with people not understanding or approving. I believe it is good for the brain to always be calculating the conditions.
If i never wore one, that’s a fail. Never underestimate how people grew up and their parents attitudes about risk. As children, we were encouraged to test ourselves and once you have been indoctrinated that way you probably can’t give it up. But I have never been tempted to do recreational drugs so I think that is part of the reason.
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You don’t see the ones that went under. 
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I lead a group of kayakers, mostly elderly, and I require them (and me, I am 84) to always wear their PFD’s at all times. I do not wish for any of us to capsize and require the rest of us to have to try to rescue them. At least if they fall in they will float while we call for help.
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