A recent thread started by paddle safety advocate @MoultonAvery got me thinking. I didn’t want to derail that threads intent away from paddle boat manufactures responsibilities to show their products used properly and possibly educating consumers as to basic paddling safety concerns.
There is really little I can do at my local level for problems on a national scale involving big companies beyond talking about it and supporting efforts to convince them to change and boycotting the product.
What I’m thinking about is what I can do locally in promoting safety and not wanting to preach to the choir and that’s what it becomes when you organize something the most uninformed don’t show up and a lot of like minded and well informed do. As we talked about briefly in the other thread it is a difficult task to come up to people cold and offer advice going against what they were planning to do and it is also hard to be at a place to come in contact with risky boaters as the sport is spread out over many miles of water ways.
IMO the policing agencies here would be the fish and boat commission, coast guard and local fire departments are reactive rather than proactive on these matters. Sure they print a lot of great materials but unless you send for it or stop in their booth at the county fair you are not going to see it.
Every paddle boat here is required to have a sticker that costs I think $22 and for that fee you get absolutely nothing except permission to use the approved launch ramp. People end up dropping boats in some place close by when they don’t have the sticker sliding their boats down a mud bank. The launch ramps fill with silt when river heights are high and they don’t even bother to scrape them off for those that pay the fee.
Here is a thought I’m having. I wonder if the Fish and Boat commission or whoever is in control of these places would allow someone or do it themselves to put a sign up at each launch location showing the current water temp and flow rate/ gage height etc with some explanation as to boating safety surrounding the conditions and risk factors for the time of year. PFD advice etc.
Of course it would be great if this was electronic and updated with information etc, but that’s almost too much to expect. I think it possible to find volunteers to do this once a day and I could see walking over to the launch near me and doing this.
This is just an idea I had and was wondering if others had local ideas on water safety we could do first hand and have maybe an impact.
I was thinking of the case of me walking up to a young couple and telling them I didn’t think it a good idea they go out on the river on a 70 degree spring day when the water is 40f in their inflatable Wal-mart kayak with a couple horse collar orange PFD used as seats wearing shorts and tee shirts. It is a hard sell and likely end in me being told to mind my own business. On the other hand I see them looking at a sign right there that says welcome to the river today the water is 40f and unprotected accidental immersion could cause near immediate drowning. If you have proper immersion dry suit you should be fine have a good day. They may just think twice as one of them may just say to the other this might not be a good idea. There are even a lot of people that don’t know a PFD has to by law be worn during certain days of the year and by certain age people.
I don’t know it was an idea.
On Edit 3/31/22
Here are two links complements of @rival51 to paddleboat safety by the USCG they are the same video just at two different sites. They deal in facts surrounding risk assessment and cold-water paddling. The USCG defines cold-water paddling as any thing under 70F water. They are worth a watch.
