Leashes save lives.

[yugi]

… Nevertheless, the world as well as this island are filled with nincompoops. You can’t fix stupid.

Darwin can.

…
It is surprising that there are not more tragedies. But, in the vast number of cases, these guys get rescued. I worry that the rest of us, that go almost daily, carry back up gear and have at least an emergency plan if things go wrong, will eventually get restricted because of these kinds of incidents.
…

True and, unfortunately, true.

The anglo-saxon gut reflex to a problem is to regulate and control. The US, with UK catching up, have gone so far in this direction as to practically completely remove any sense of personal responsibility and decision making. Over controlling only de-resonsablisies the individual even more.

I prefer the education approach.

In the end good old darwinism will prevail.

[surf4food]

Surf4, couldn't agree with you more. Nevertheless, the world as well as this island are filled with nincompoops. You can't fix stupid.

No you can't, and I'm certainly no brain surgeon.  As I said, I agree with you that the shops need to do a better job of educating.  I think they always need to ask if the person has ever paddled before just as a starter.  Still, all the education and proper safety equipment in the world can only go so far.  About a year ago here in San Diego we had a kid visiting from overseas.  I believe he was here for a basketball tournament.  He fell out of his rental kayak.  This was in Mission Bay.  Turns out he had a PFD onboard but chose not to wear it.  It also turns out he couldn't swim and drowned as a result.  What in the world prompted him to rent a kayak and on top of that, not wear the PFD?  His death was very tragic and my heart goes out to his family.  We could go into the whole coulda woulda shoulda with the shop that rented it to him (I think it was Mission Bay Aquatic Center).  Regardless, I can't stop thinking the guy himself should have known better.

[yugi]

I try and learn from the mistakes I make. Especially those where I end up still alive!

[PonoBill]

The biggest problem with safety gear is that you have to go so very far to have it be useful--people consume safety margin. People put a PFD on their kid and walk away. People click their seat belt and drive like lunatics. I strap an inflatable life vest on my waist and feel ever so much more comfortable a mile out in the ocean on a sketchy day.

We drive the safest cars ever built and the death rate has come down some--but nothing like it should have. I remember standing on the front seat behind my father's shoulder while he drove his big old Pontiac. No seat belts, no air bags, no ABS, no crumple zones, no anti-intrusion bars, not even a headrest. I don't think the guy ever had an accident. If he had to hit the brakes he'd put up a hand to keep me from bouncing off the dashboard.

Paints a nice, nostalgic picture, but today he'd be arrested for child endangerment.

[Wetstuff]

"If he had to hit the brakes he'd put up a hand to keep me from bouncing off the dashboard.   ....today he'd be arrested for child endangerment."  Deservedly so.   Like letting kids ride in the back of a pickup.

UKRS,  ..mentions rivers ..a leashed, woman got stuck under a river barge last summer. ..bad result.   It's reckless for a rental outfit to not photograph the renter wearing a PFD and leash before sending them off.   When business' make sports look easy, you better CYA. 

(our Federal park canoe/kayak rental ..had to buy a recovery boat because they would rent canoes to people who would paddle ...downwind, facing one another.)

Jim

[pdxmike]

This is a perfect example of why both sides are right in regard to who has to take responsibility for safety.   Shops can't rely on customers acting safely, and customers can't rely on shops to create safety for them. 


Legally, the shop may have the greater responsibility (and it should) but I wouldn't want to be a customer whose survivors won a lawsuit.  And the customers can claim they have a legal right to be clueless, but the shop shouldn't be allowed that excuse for itself.

[SUP Leave]

A stencil or sticker placed on the top of every rental board "Is your leash attached?" along the lines of "Call before you dig" for any ocean/bay going rental board is all the regulation I will support. Easy to regulate, and easy to upkeep. Minimal costs for everyone.

At beaches right below the "dogs on leash only" have "surfboards on leash only", now we have covered it publicly and privately.

PBill is right, we can't regulate our way around water sport deaths.

[PonoBill]

"If he had to hit the brakes he'd put up a hand to keep me from bouncing off the dashboard.   ....today he'd be arrested for child endangerment."  Deservedly so.   Like letting kids ride in the back of a pickup.

Which of course everyone used to do, and still do in Hawaii where it's legal. I think Hawaii is one of about twenty states that allow it. The cops will stop you for not wearing a seatbelt up front, but you can stack folks ten high in the bed of the pickup and it's just fine. Weird stuff. There's an even weirder thing here. The "cool" way to ride is leaning against the tailgate. seriously. Not only do you get peppered with road grit and wind, but you''re trusting the latch on the worst maintained vehicles in the 50 states.

[wrybread]

> Another angle - The board is your life vest??

That's one of the advantages of just calling whatever you're using your "PFD", as in "personal floatation device". None of the hardcore boaters / fishermen I know really use the word "life jacket" or "life vest", its always "PFD". That covers life jackets, float coats (more common in my chilly Northern California waters) and, for us, leashed SUPs.