So while im a zealot it took me a while to get there. We always wore lifejackets when out with the family, local trips. The culture was different when i worked for the bsa in maine. We gave a stringent swim test, in a choppy lake, shoes on. If you passed you only had to wear it when your guide told you to, if you didnt pass then you always wore your pfd… I was a guide.
I had been at it 4 or 5 seasons when we were paddling back to base after paddling the eastbranch and websterbrook, on a routine mile and a half lake crossing. The launch area is somewhat sheltered. Fortunately i noticed the wind in the center of the lake was picking up. I made the decision for pfds. It wasnt popular. We made it half way across when all hell broke loose. Major whitecaps, thunder, lightening, sheets of rain. Just think of the worst conditions youve ever had driving an interstate and you want to pull over but you cant.
Crew is doing their best to get to a small island but it is a struggle for each boat. We all made it and the only peace of mind i had was knowing that they all had on their pfd because if they had capsized they would have floated a couple of miles to the end of the lake.
Im camping at summersville lake in wv, my daughter had been playing with the little girl in the next campsite. The daddy drowns behind the campsite. It really sucked.
A rafting customer dies at meat grinder on the lower new. There is a large crowd gathered doing cpr unsuccessfully as i float by.
School where i work, custodian loses granddaughter at myrtle beach
Scott hassen drowns on the lower meadow, my boss at the rivermen. He was getting married the next week.
Two of us are boating the dries at high water, my friend kent goes into a huge hole and almost flush drowns. Walks off river even though it is an epic hike to get out because he wont even cross the river to walk the tracks. He is totally freaked.
My sister loses two friends canoeing on lake george without pfds.
Ive personally been on the water when 3 fatalities occured. I conducted a meeting the day after frenchie died on camp creek. We were supposed to boat a week earlier together but i canceled because i didnt like the levels. He liked to run things juiced. Bad combo, high water and small creeks.
I saw the devastated looks when they couldnt find the car keys. Parked next to his car. The guy from three rivers who was leading the trip dies at pillow, gauley r, not only will his wife learn that her husband drowned but she will need to retrieve the car as well .
Child dies at takeout swimming. Anther child screams for help as they are swept off their feet but is rescued by my friends. The list goes on and on.
I honestly think there are a few instances when the pfd could be shed, if you become entangled, continually recirced badly to the bottom of the river bed but not out of a hole. Trying to get under or through ocean surf but none of these were the case.
And then there was that whole getting caught in a derachio running fayette station new r., swimming out of an undercut in a sqirt boat on the obed, and swimming hydroelectric in jawbone, chattooga.
Two days ago someone broke their ankle, thankfully i was spared the drama, i was at the take out already . Class ii stream about half the folks not wearing pfds
With ww you know the value of the pfd. One time a kid drowned at a takeout swimming while i was running shuttle. The aftermath is hell even for the bystanders. Its simply a club you dont want to belong too.
and failed. So since then …