No, the data doesn’t cross reference boat type with deaths occurring in whitewater.
There are quite a number of older paddlers here. I bet, like me, many of us as kids followed a learning pattern that involved a Red Cross or similar training pattern that involved a heavy emphasis on learning swimming skills well before we ever got into a canoe. Just the way it used to be done - for better or (I believe) worse. The Red Cross canoeing manual from the late 60s is 400 pages and many illustrations that do not include a single illustration of anyone in a PFD and less than a paragraph in those 400 pages about PFDs.
Back then I, like most paddlers I knew, carried a PFD and put it on if waves came up or if it looked like we might be paddling something tricky.
BUT when I started paddling with groups of folks I didn’t know well I’d find myself paddling with folks who didn’t seem to be really seasoned paddlers. Involvement with any group means looking out for others as well as oneself. And I sure wish they’d put a PFD on so if I had to fish someone out they would at least have done a little something to assist in their own rescue. And it occurs to me that others in the group who didn’t know me might look at me in exactly the same way. So that is the line of thought that convinced me that PFD use is something to practice religiously. I started putting the PFD on every single time. It doesn’t hurt. I never was “married” to the idea of not wearing one. Its not worth making a fuss over. And it been over 25 years since I haven’t worn one in routine paddling, though I’ll admit to taking it off temporarily to soak my shirt on a hot day or similar and I sometimes put it on as I’m drifting away from a lunch stop. Its better for me and for the peace of mind of everyone else as well. There’s just no compelling reason not to.
I’ve taken some swims, like everyone here, I’d suppose. I don’t think there’s been one yet that would have proven fatal if I hadn’t been wearing a PFD, but each and every one was an easier swim for wearing one and the day may yet come when I might find myself in a situation where it could prove decisive. I do think its worth remembering that wearing a PFD doesn’t make a person bullet proof either - cold water, some strainers, log jams, foot entrapment, heavy waves far from shore - all that can be dangerous with or without a PFD.
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Every time I get in a car, the though goes through my mind that maybe I’ll find something fun to crash into today. I’ve been doing that for 54 years, and have been disappointed because nothing in particular has enticed me to crash into it. Not sure why I bother with that stupid seat belt anymore.
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We have laws where kids have to have specific child seats based on age and weight and these seats no matter how well kept have timed obsolesces so families with kids spread out in age often have to buy new seats throwing out what look like perfect seats. If I as an adult get pulled over for some reason and don’t have my belt on I will be fined.
Then when a child turns 5 and goes off to kindergarten in all but 5 states we send them off in a school bus with no seat belts no, air bags and the steel pipe frame of the seat in front unpadded. The reasons given for lack of safety is it would add aroung $8000 and reduce the number of seats on the bus by a few. They also say statistics show school buses are safe without.
The world we live in IMO dumbs us down to self-awareness in terms of personal safety and that problem is on us not on anyone else. The world and sports/hobbies like paddling should require some high level of self-awareness. It should be passed on from person to person, but the final point is it is a personal choice what we do with the information.
Lack of paddle boating safety is a concern of mine but one I don’t see a ready remedy to beyond making information available and then letting adults make up their own minds.
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There is a process called natural selection. You only make a fstal mistake once. Just remember: never attempt to rescue a drowning victim unless you’re wearing a flotation. I don’t care what others do!
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Definitely always worth it to wear one. I’d rather be cautious than become a statistic out there.
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Seems like everybody is worrying about the people not wearing PFD’s except the people not wearing PFD’s. Why is that? If they aren’t worried, why should I worry - I don’t.
I think you need to enter a demolition derby. 
People have to save them or look for them for days wasting resources and risking their lives.
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I wear a PFD, at least they won’t have to wait until I refloat. A friend told me you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it float on it’s back. If a person who isn’t wearing a PFD is drowning, why would you jump in the water to help if you didn’t have flotation yourself. I won’t feel guilty; that seems like a valuable lesson to me!!! This is such a circular argument. The person who wears a PFD says you need to wear one. The person who doesntt wear one says no I don’t. Yes you do! No I don’t. Should! Shouldn’t. Should . . . Don’t, I’d rather tske my chances. You shouldn’t do that! Should! Shouldn’t . . . You might die! No I won’t! Will! Won’t!
If I did enter a demolition derby, I’d at least wear a seatbelt . . . and a PFD.
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Insurers and their actuaries will tell you that adulthood for males - when the frontal lobe is fully developed - is about 26 yrs old.
Probably true. I was 26 when I started wearing a PFD and haven’t taken ot off yet. Yet I’m smart enough to figure out that when person decides their life is not in jeopardy if they don’t wear a PFD, my insistence to the contrary don’t mean diddly do, so by all that is holy, keep on insisting they listen!!!@@!
I tend to agree with that statement. When I was 26 I had been living on my own and working for 9 years had put myself thru 4 years of schooling got married and had a 6 year old son. There was defiantly something not working in my brain yet. I had been whitewater rafting down in WV a bunch by then but always with a PFD strapped on.
I didn’t know female brains develop sooner though. Just another reason a man can’t become a woman I guess.
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I was mature beyond my years. My mother always told me, “you got a smart mouth,” followed by a backhanded slap.
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99.9% of the time the person drowning without a PFD is attempted to be rescued by another person without a PFD is because the other person is a loved one or at least a friend accompanying them. Chances are the person boating wearing a PFD will be with others wearing PFDs and we will never hear about the mishap as it will be a successful rescue.
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My old dentist was having trouble getting an X-ray of a wisdom tooth and told me he couldn’t get a clear picture. I told him oh I know why when I was 7 my mom told me I had a thick skull. He said I bet that’s it and his mom told him the same thing. His 20 something assistant gave him a puzzled look and said she never learned anything about that in dental assistant school. He told her it was a condition of young boys that grew up in the 60s.
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I typically paddle solo, but if I’m with someone, it’s family or a close friend. I make sure they wear a PFD for that very reason, and because I want to be able to depend on them helping me. Be careful of risking your life to save someone who has less regard for his or her own life. It’s a personal choice, after all.
You must still have your wisdom teeth.
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This must be true, I can’t tell you how many falls and jumps involving bikes, bridges, trees, garages, etc… that I survived without a helmet in sight. I may have been trying to stop my pre-frontal lobe from ever developing.
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One of the first things I remember from my first raft trip down in WV was the instructor/guide showing us the not tight enough PFD thing where he pulls the shoulders up showing you where the water will be when your head is in the middle of the PFD if not tight.
Then he said if you do go for a swim one of the kayak guides will come and help you get to the edge. They will come to you bow first and under no circumstances try and get beside them. If you do they will paddle away from you. They are no good with you clinging to their waist and you turning them upside down. He told us grab the front of the kayak by the grab loop and keep one leg to each side and they will paddle you backwards to the nearest safe spot to get out and picked up and taken back to your raft by a guide raft.
This is one reason I added grab loops to my canoe and the reason a couple weeks ago I bought a floating boat cushion that can be thrown. The last thing I want is a panicked non-swimmer without a PFD trying to save themselves at my expense. Before I’m getting too close I want to know they are under their own control.
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