Using iPhone when wet?

[Bulky]

For an iPhone:

In settings, set Autolock to Never. To get the the main screen, double click the button--no swiping necessary.

That's a good suggestion and I'll try it.  Funny, but I usually start the GPS and then manually lock the phone before setting out--which means I'm creating the need to swipe.    

While I'd be concerned about battery life on longer outings, that's probably not a factor for 60-90min.  Only other concern would be that I'd stop my workout tracker, but I can just close that page and leave it open to the phone app.  That's the one I would be needing if something happened.

Now to determine what the most helpful numbers would be.

Good to know boats are required to monitor VHF radio, Steve, and thanks for the chuckle on your hypothetical scenarios, OWave.  I qualify all this in that I'm trying to maintain reasonable safety measures for my daily context--not prevent against every possible situation.  There are others here who have daily paddles that might require higher levels of preparedness.  As I said, the chances I'd ever need to communicate with someone on land are already extremely remote--so remote that I feel that a working iPhone will reasonably suffice.  Not enough likelihood to carry/maintain a VHF radio or second device.  By similar logic I don't carry a PFD--seeing as I'm strapped to the board in relatively tame conditions I just don't need the redundancy.

Even with all the possible scenarios I could envision, I would still view it as infinitely more likely that I would paddle my board back into shore by hand (which would still only take me 30min or so) and call my wife to pick me up than I would place a call for emergency assistance from the water.  Still, just thinking through who I would dial if I needed to is a good step.  With that, I feel I've taken reasonable steps.

[PonoBill]

so how do you know that?  is there a coastguard rescue # ? 911 i don't think will cut it. life guards?  not in winter in so cal.  Are lifeuards equipped to find you via gps  form your phone.  Overall  I think  you ought to have both.  IMHO  but maybe I 'm wrong. Can Batman swim?

Takes about ten minutes to figure out. In Maui I called the police non-emergency number and asked who I should call if I had a water emergency. the lady I talked with gave me two numbers immediately--lifeguards and coasties--the 911 and non-emergency operators are usually the same people, just different priorities and process. She said call the lifeguards first, they love to fire up the jetskis since they get paid extra if they do. And she said the Coasties were based in Maalea but they coordinate with Maui Police and Fire, Lifeguards, NOAA and the Coast Guard Auxiliary. She also told me not to call the cops unless I really needed to since they had to fill out all kinds of paperwork for any incident while the lifeguards don't. And of course she knew the numbers without looking anything up--how many tourists call anyone BUT a 911 operator.

I did the same thing in Hood River, and the operator said call the sheriff since they coordinate all search and rescue. Piece of cake.

[NoSaltSuper]

There's an easier way with the iPhone, press and hold the home button, then use voice command to dial.

No need to unlock the phone either.

Press and hold till it beeps then simply say: call 911

Or, Call Fred, or whomever in your contacts.

Now with Siri, you don't even need to push the button, just say "Hey Siri, call 911".
This could be especially useful if you can't get your hands on your phone for some reason.

Siri has gotten much better, it's quite useful when driving. "Hey Siri, read text message ". She reads any unread messages and then prompts you to respond, all via voice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free