Fishin-T:
Fool n. 1. One who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding. 2. One who acts unwisely on a given occasion.
This forum has been set aside to talk all about safety, and I'm hoping that a few of you will be a buddy for just a few minutes and help me get a good clear perspective on exactly that subject. Myself, I'm seeing the entire safety thing as a dichotomy of risk on the one side and reward (or a negative reward, i.e. the price) on the other. There's no way around it, it's almost ALWAYS up to each individual to weigh those two sides for himself and find that balance that that person can live with.
Now, to increase our chances that people will have a look at this thread (I guess I'm mostly hoping new guys will take a glance), I'm gonna try to keep it fairly simple. If you can't resist the compulsion to expand it way out, shoot, open a new thread if you would please. And we all know that NObody can do anything about "stupid" people, so let's assume for this exercise that I'll use decent judgement and have some amount of common sense. I'm only asking for some insight to fill out the "understanding" bit. Okay, so here's what I'm hoping that you'll be considerate enough to give me on this thread:
Imagine that I'm a newby that just showed up on the NWKA site and I'm honestly, openly asking for advise from you old salts, or freshwater guys, whatever. I've either just purchased a kayak or I will soon and I can't WAIT to get out on the water and do my thing! That is, I'm seeing LOT's of reward out ahead of me. I've got a paddle and my fishing gear and yes indeed, I've picked up some sort of PFD. I said I was a FOOL, I didn't say that I was STUPID. Besides, I think we can all agree that on this site there's probably not ONE person that will tell you that going out there without some sort of PFD is a reasonably risk free adventure. If I'm wrong, then by all means let's kick that around... but probably not, so let's try to limit it to my newby question.
So here's my two part newby question: 1. What is it that you see as being THE NUMBER ONE threat to our lives when we go out there to fish? This is the NWKA site and so I'm talking here about US, fishing HERE, in the NW. 2. What kind of price would you advise me to pay to reduce that threat?
1. I promise my wife on almost all of my trips: "Don't you worry baby, this guy is gonna get himself back here to you alive and well." So staying alive is my biggest thing out there. Catching fish is #2, or even #3. Go ahead and give me your joke answers if you can't help yourself, but I want the real answer too if your going to weigh in. And please help me out just a little here and try to limit yourself to just ONE answer (except of course, in response to somebody else's answer), your best answer. And how big a risk do you see it? Statistics are always cool, but pure opinions sure count too... I'm hoping to kick off a brainstorm thing here and I don't mind WHERE you are getting your ideas, so long as you're serious (eventually) and really mean it.
2. What can I do to mitigate the risk, and what kind of price will that cost me.. what does it take? I didn't mean to rule out PFD's as an answer above. Maybe you'd reccomend some particular EXCELLENT PFD. Hey, let's open it up a little bit... go ahead and give me two, three, or even four of your best answers. And I need some insight as to your perception of the cost as in the dollar price, as in how much hassel is it, is it way uncomfortable but worth it, is it a lot of effort or will it cost a lot of time somehow? If I'm Mr. Newby, and I'm seeing the negative reward as being too high compared to the amount of risk reduction, then of course I'll toss that idea right out.
Okay, so lay it on me! And remember that a lot of REAL people read this stuff and then go out on our waters, so keep it real if you would please.
Thanks,
Fishin-T
[WR]:
i consider my absolute biggest threat to my safety on the water to be power boaters and larger vessels. there are far too many heedless and careless operators out there. sometimes they are even severely intoxicated, either on alcohol or some form of drugs. i truly believe that one day i may get run over by one of these people.
last summer, yarjammer and i did a lake washington bass trip and both of us witnessed lots of bad boat handling. in one case there was a moron with an offshore cigarette boat blowing thru the no wake zone at at least 50 mph.
while i might offhandedly make remarks about the yellow color of my pfd and my T15, i am glad they are bright, somewhat high visibility colors. it's also why i was such a big proponent of us having a safety flag when that topic came up some time back. the more visibility i have to others while on the water the better off i feel i will be.
i learned the following lesson years ago from my depression era parents, and used it while in the service and apply it today to my yak fishing too; buy the best you can afford and when you go to buy it, make it hurt just a bit.. by that, i mean, buy quality safety gear and dont be stingy on price. a 25.00 flag or a 140.00 pfd is a very small price to pay to protect my life.
polepole:
IMO, there are too many scenarios that can be "a threat". So my answer ... don't be a FOOL ... use good judgment and don't act unwisely!!! This means educating yourself to be prepared for any and all possible scenarios. Of course that begs the question, what are all those possible scenarios? >:D
-Allen
Fishin-T:
Polepole,
In this exercise, I'm not trying to pinpoint the winner out of a collection of possible accidents that might happen. What I'm hoping to do is to go right to the heart of the ONE thing (or with several individuals answers, several big things) that you heavily experienced guys see as being potential trouble and perhaps the most truely likely situation that could get an angler to the point where now he (or she) is coming back dead from that trip. In other words, I'm looking to YOU guys, here, for that initial portion of that education that you're referring to.
So of course, the other half of the excercise is for you and others to offer us some effective ideas that we might should employ to reduce or minimize that particular risk. When I say "effective", I'm looking for ideas that can be seen to have enough "bang for the buck", or effort, or what have you, that they might be likely that people will actually pick them up and use them. I've said "reduce" because I think we can all admit that we all live with some amount of risk no matter what we do in life. It's ALWAYS a question as to whether you see it as worth the reward for you or not.
Fishin-T
coosbayyaker:
Drowning has got to be the number one threat, INMHO, whether from being hypothermic or being unconscious for one reason or another, like getting run over by a reckless power boater, or bonking your head on someting or even a medical condition(we are getting older). So, i say where a PFD the first time you go out and where it everytime you go out.
I've heard people say they only where a PFD when there on the ocean..huh?! If your unconscious and face down you can drown in mere inches of water.
So get a PFD,get one that fits and is comfortable, so you'll wear it.
The most bang for the buck is a PFD, hands down..Dressing for the conditions is very important also, but if you drown from being uncunscious in the first minutes of being in the water, hyperthermia would be the least of your worries.