How often do you wear your life vest?

[QC]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

Over Labor Day weekend, due to this thread, I purposely looked around and counted how many adults I saw wearing their PFDs while underway. I counted two. Three days, very busy section of the Colorado River, hundreds of boats . . . Two. Not two boats, two people. I did not count the Police as I am sure those guys are required to wear them.

What this tells me is either:

a) People where we boat are inherently bigger risk takers, which may actually be true
b) People who post here are especially safety conscious
c) People who post here lie to fit in
d) I have witnessed a statistical outlier that has lasted for 30 years and many trips a year (unlikely)
e) People from California, Arizona, and Nevada are stupid
f) All of the above

I am guessing that it is all but d, and for self preservation I hope not e. I don't see how I would not witness at least some time where a bunch of people were wearing PFDs to catch up with our statistics here and I know at least a couple of smart people from AZ and CA.

One thing I do know, is that if I enforced a PFDs-whenever-we-were-aboard rule, that I would spend the rest of my boating experience on the beach or alone . . . I am not prepared for either at this point.

 

[cougar1985]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

Have gotten into the habit of wearing my inflatable (which unlike jay, i trust,lol)about 99 percent of the time .I have to admit it has only been 2 years since i bought it ,but im now at the age that even if i THINK im a excellent swimmer im in reality proably a rock and i dont want to test it out in any way shape or form.I find that i dont even notice that i have the vest on any more.I refuse though to be holier than thou and preach about them ,its your choise and your choise alone to make that decision as far as im concerned.

 

[blairjbyrd]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

Only when im by myself. They are always in reach though.

 

[skargo]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

A lot of people seem to wear their vest only when they sence danger. But how many times has danger came when we were not expecting it. Its the things that we are not expecting that normaly cause the most problems..

Evidently from this thread some have crystal balls. I laugh at that.

I do not think the government should mandate anything. Let everyone not wear helmets, seatbelts, pfds, etc and the idiots will soon cease to exist and we can go back to survival of the fittest, and undo the damage that has been done to the human race.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

...%...spend the rest of my boating experience on the beach or alone . . . I am not prepared for either at this point.

Gotcha. If that is the platform you are running on, you'd have my vote.

 

[zapblam]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

Why break the cycle now. Been manditory in my family for ever. And in my wifes family forever. For a few generations. Foot leaves dock, grab life jacket and that jacket stays on till you get back onto land.

I like to be a good rolemodel for my daughters. If I am not wearing a life jacket, later on why should they?

I found that life jackets were very uncomfortable. But always had the cheapy Walmart jackets. Few years ago I actually went to a kayak/canoe store and bought a expensive $60 paddling jacket designed for movement and weight.. WOW barely know its there. Very light, unrestrictive and breaths well. Kind of feels like a fly fishing vest. Best investment ever.

 

[thrillhouse700]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

Over Labor Day weekend, due to this thread, I purposely looked around and counted how many adults I saw wearing their PFDs while underway. I counted two. Three days, very busy section of the Colorado River, hundreds of boats . . . Two. Not two boats, two people. I did not count the Police as I am sure those guys are required to wear them.

What this tells me is either:

a) People where we boat are inherently bigger risk takers, which may actually be true
b) People who post here are especially safety conscious
c) People who post here lie to fit in
d) I have witnessed a statistical outlier that has lasted for 30 years and many trips a year (unlikely)
e) People from California, Arizona, and Nevada are stupid
f) All of the above

I am guessing that it is all but d, and for self preservation I hope not e. I don't see how I would not witness at least some time where a bunch of people were wearing PFDs to catch up with our statistics here and I know at least a couple of smart people from AZ and CA.

One thing I do know, is that if I enforced a PFDs-whenever-we-were-aboard rule, that I would spend the rest of my boating experience on the beach or alone . . . I am not prepared for either at this point.

I'm assuming your referring to Parker? Didn't some guy die labor day weekend diving off rocks? Either way if your talking about Parker/Havasu then yeah no one wheres life jackets out there. Even with it being so massively busy you hear about more deaths due to stupid drunk people than boating accidents. Ill be honest I don't wear a vest when I go there, but 90% of the time we are parked on a sand bar or beached near camp and waist high in water and belly deep in beer.

 

[diesel5599]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I have only worn mine once, and that was to try it on in the store. I have only considered wearing mine once, and that was when I got caught in a really bad storm in the middle of Tampa Bay with 8 miles to go in 5 foot seas.

They are so uncomfortable, and I have the really nice $60/apiece ones. But impossible to do anything in them if you want to fish.

 

[QC]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I'm assuming your referring to Parker? Didn't some guy die labor day weekend diving off rocks?

Yeah Parker. I am guessing you meant the Cliffs over by Sundance. I did see some guys jumping there, but didn't hear about a death.

Edit: Just read about a death in Copper Canyon the week before Labor Day. Might have been it as he was well known . . . My kids jump off the smaller cliffs there, and I have not been that worried actually. Now I am going to have to go look and see where exactly he jumped from; I just can't picture it. From what I can recall, that was insane . . .

 

[WAVENBYE2]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I couldn't vote because its not in the list. "Only when I am by myself" When my wife and I are together then I just cruise at 30mph, and it's just kick back and relax, But when I am bymyself then yes I do wear one due to I jump alot of waves and have alot of fun safely creating my own waves and jumping them @ W.O.T, Yes it can be done safely. I really do need to use my lanyard too, Will start doing that next season when I am out and having my fun.

 

[skargo]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I have only worn mine once, and that was to try it on in the store. I have only considered wearing mine once, and that was when I got caught in a really bad storm in the middle of Tampa Bay with 8 miles to go in 5 foot seas.

They are so uncomfortable, and I have the really nice $60/apiece ones. But impossible to do anything in them if you want to fish.

You need to try the auto inflatable, we literally forget they are on, and you could absolutely fish in them.

Edit: Unnecessary

 

[bear_69cuda]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I was also thinking about investing in auto inflatable PFD's. The ones that store in a pouch. Any opinions? I also believe if you're in the water it's a good idea to have the PFD on. I let a few friends w/o PFD's in the water last summer, 20' from shore, only waist deep, sandy bottom lake, and no current... Not sure if I'll do that again?

I never wear a PFD just cruising, or hanging out. But I may if it was portable and could wear around my waist.

 

[skargo]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I was also thinking about investing in auto inflatable PFD's. The ones that store in a pouch. Any opinions? I also believe if you're in the water it's a good idea to have the PFD on. I let a few friends w/o PFD's in the water last summer, 20' from shore, only waist deep, sandy bottom lake, and no current... Not sure if I'll do that again?

I never wear a PFD just cruising, or hanging out. But I may if it was portable and could wear around my waist.

What good does that do if you are knocked unconscious? You need to be awake to make sure they work right, and you need to put them over your head while in the water.

And for those that don't wear any,
This says it all to me,

According to the Coast Guard, 85% of all annual boating deaths are due to failure to use PFDs.

60% of those deaths involved people falling overboard without a PFD!

From here,
http://www.boatingmadesimple.com/life_jackets.htm

 

[trendsetter240]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

My basic policy is everyone under 16 and/or doing watersports must wear one. Also included are people who are not strong swimmers.

Honestly I never wear mine while operating the boat. We have 6 PFDs that are placed in an accessible location as part of the pre-departure checklist. I usually sit on one while driving.

However, an incident over the summer has changed my mind. Before I go boating next season I will be picking up a good quality, comfortable life vest that I will wear ALL the time. The incident was as follows:

I was driving my 14ft runabout with a 40hp outboard (the max plate rating for that boat) along side a friend in his 14ft tinny. His boat was much slower than mine and it was a long trip so I was enjoying wide long turns on the smooth as glass water about 500ft behind him.

I was running at about 3/4 throttle, 25mph mid turn when a bolt snapped in my steering connection. The engine slammed hard to right and the boat instantly started into a 360 degree turn.

I was thrown down and forward but luckily was able to hold onto the throttle control in a death grip! I quickly pulled the throttle back to neutral and stopped the motor.

That incident I survived with only a few bruises but it couldve been much worse. The water was calm as glass and weather was not an issue. Accidents can happen in any situation.

In future, if something like that were to happen and I'm thrown overboard I will be glad to be floating in my life vest with my head above the water, conscious or not.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

Wear mine 100% when alone. 100% when children are on board. 100% when choppy waters and 0% when anchored unless alone.

 

[stylesabu]

Re: How often do you wear your life vest?

I'm new to boating, but you can bet, I will allways wear mine when motor is running. I'm also in process of redoing my deck, I will make sure saftey kill is always in use, attached to me, as my boat is older. and any thing could happen, like steering cable breaking. I used to play follow the leader when I first started fishing/boating, happened at the same time. And I used to keep mine on the back of my chair. this thread has put pfd in a whole differant light for me than before, Thanks.