plastic pony tail holders (really)
What the heck - no one mentioned this as an option, so I’ll share what I and several in my area do!
I use the small clear pony tail holders (Goody’s “ouchless” but there’s probably many brands/styles). These are small plastic/elastic looking clear loops, about 1 inch diameter. I loop a few together to attach the whistle to the shoulder webbing on my pfd. They are a little elastic, so I think with just using 2 looped together my whistle can easily reach my mouth from where it’s on the pfd shoulder, but doesn’t dangle very far either.
The reason for using this as opposed to something like say para-cord, etc. is that with a really good hard yank, these elastic loops will break. Sea kayakers probably don’t worry so much about snag potential, but I mostly paddle whitewater, and so this way if I swim and my whistle gets snagged on something enough to cause me trouble, the elastic will break before I’m stuck. It actually takes an amazing amount of force to break even just thin diameter para-cord, so it’s a bit of a safety thing. Might be overkill safety wise…but it actually makes a very cheap and handy way to attach the whistle anyway!!!
PS - my whistle has been on the same vest for 3+ years this way and is holding strong, although the clear plastic has become yellowed. Since I think I got 50 pony tail loops for about 50 cents, maybe I’ll just go ahead and put fresh loops on there soon!
Cheers
awesome idea!
I had never considered that!
Thanks!
Simple, Cheap, Effective
Take 18-inches or so of nylon gros-grain tape (or a similarly-long nylon shoe-lace).
Pass a small loop through the whistle’s ring and sew it shut with needle and thread.
Sew the other end of the line to just inside of your zippered PFD pocket (assuming you have one.)
Fini.
It is out of the way, always in your pocket when you want it, has just enough length to reach your mouth, cannot be lost, and will not strangle you.
Works for me.
NOT TO A ZIPPER
It can catch on the deck during re-entries and unzip your pfd
whistle location
My pfd has buckles in the front. My whistle is attached to the top buckle.
Emergency Whistle Side Release Buckle
Bought this nifty little guy from seattle fabrics. It’s like a regular side release buckle, but part of ti is a very low profile emergency whistle, I slipped it on the 1" webbing coming down from my shoulder strap. you can find them online.