If it is wild I carry the splits on deck. For costal day tripping they mostly they live inside, along with most of my other safety gear. I am willing to stretch the point for the luxury of an uncluttered deck. In thirty years of gentleman-style paddling (get in dry, get out dry). I have never needed the stuff myself. I tend to use a leash these days as it makes it so much easier to take photographs if one is not keeping half an eye on the paddle.

On occasion I have loaned my spare to another paddler with a 'toy' paddle, just to get them thinking about upgrading to something more efficient.

The only rule I never circumvent is the deal I have with my wife to always wear my buoyancy aid no matter how benign the conditions. This is a continuation from windsurfing, where one might be stunned in a wipeout. In any case, it is easier to wear it than to stow it, but I don't tell her that.

The most important safety equipment one can carry is common sense and imagination, both of which (hopefully) increase with age and experience of the sport, and both of which are needed more by the less agile of those amongst us who may no longer rely on the luxury of youth to mitigate the effects of overconfidence. Sometimes we just doesn't go, or we take a different route.

I wonder what pre-industrial maritime people would make of our equipment today? I think most of us consider a mobile phone to be fundamental safety equipment today, a decade ago they didn't exist, or GPS. The list keeps growing. Thankfully these things get smaller and lighter as they evolve.

I would be interested in hearing from other codgers on the issue of what they take along, and when, and where they stow it. And the incidents and experiences which have informed their choices.

It would be worthy of an interesting thread. Maybe I will initiate it.

Sorry about meandering off the point of the thread a little, but it is pertinent to the point to some degree.

Et