Always, always, always carry a sheathed
: fixed-blade knife in an accessible location so you can cut the towline in
: case your quick-release doesn't function.

Thanks again, and here's a related story about always carrying a knife. I do a lot of snorkeling and I always wear a dive knife even when just snorkeling. I constantly practice grabbing and releasing it. I get laughed at quite a bit for my dive knife when I'm snorkeling. I don't understand that, because it's better to be tangled up and have a tank of air (diving) than to be tangled up and have 1/2 a breath of air (snorkeling). One day while looking for lobsters under a rock shelf, I headed up for air. I was only about 15 feet down. Sudenly something yanked my leg. I had gotten tangled in an anchor rode that someone had cut free rather than diving out their dinghy anchor. Somehow it had managed to loop back around itself and constrict around my leg, and in my initial reaction I jerked my leg enough to tighten it pretty good. A quick cut from my knife and I was up to the surface. This all happened very fast, but it was as I was coming back up for air, and I was quite winded when I reached the surface. It was quite an eye-opener. If I did not have that knife I would be seriously injured or dead. I was not swimming alone, but as quickly as I was tangled, and as little air as I had left, there was not much time for my friend to respond.

I do the same when kayaking, and I always practice taking my knife out so I have that reflex down when it's really needed. How many times have I seen fishermen cut their lines free and throw them in the water? Can you believe I had someone tell me once that you only need a knife if kayaking in a river, and you don't need one for sea kayaking? Go figure the logic on that one.

I'll add to your advice to always keep the knife in the same place, and always practice unsheathing it so it becomes a reflex.

-Malcolm