: Swimming is a good skill but it’s not something I would trust my
: life to, so I set out to learn how to float. I was so successful
: that one day I fell asleep and was woken by screams from my
: horrified family. Just floating is a great survival skill. No
: unnecessary energy, minimum peripheral circulation to keep core
: temperature up, and so forth.

: The trick is to find a stable position that requires no activity to
: maintain. It is probably different for others, but I float best
: on my back with my hands behind my head, my knees bent and
: relaxed - it took some experimenting to discover that. If I
: straighten up I float upright and my mouth goes under in fresh
: water. I recommend anyone who enjoys - or works on - the water
: to practice this; the knowledge that you can float for hours,
: perhaps even lose consciousness and still survive is a huge
: plus. Ear plugs are a plus . . .

I have tried to float to save my life but I just can't do it...I sink like a rock. I have little body fat and lots of muscle so what I have is pretty dense. I am not sure that this is just an excuse for simply not knowing how to float...perhaps there is a way...even relaxed and on my back, the big muscled legs angle down and I am done for.

: Of course, with a pdf things are different. Again, practice can
: save your life. I tried it with a pdf years ago; relaxed and
: promptly found myself in a stable floating position, but
: face-down! That pdf was a used one and it went into the garbage
: pdq! There are some seriously useless and dangerous pdf's out
: there, and a pdf that suits one person may not suit another. The
: certification on the label isn't worth spit so test it after you
: buy it and exchange it if you suspect it might kill you in an
: emergency.

In this respect I am good. I have some decent pfd's that have been tested personally a few times and work well. Over a rapid, during the middle of the winter, summer and fall...m Kokatat has never failed me. I haven't tried it while unconscious yet...but if it happens, I'll let you know.

: Caution is another survival skill. I used to haunt the lakeshore
: looking for the first break in the ice so I could launch a kayak
: into it. I even kept an old calender so I could check off the
: Winter months that I had paddled in - never managed to check off
: February. I used to push small floes aside until one day I ran
: the bows up onto one instead. Bows up and out of the water is
: not a stable position and mature reflection suggests that was
: not a smart move with water temperature close to freezing and
: nobody else within a mile or two. Lakes tend to have low
: populations in February around here at least; that was part of
: the charm. So I moderated my paddling habits, waiting for the
: end of Spring thaw instead of the beginning. Those were the days
: . . .

Yes, caution is the most critical safety tool we all have as paddlers...that is caution sans machoism/bravado. I find these days that I tend to approach situations with far more caution than I used to, moreso while driving the car than in the kayak. I believe that is why Linda keeps calling me Mr Magoo. I am also fairly myopic as well. I love to drive her nuts by taking my glasses off while driving and asking her if the blur ahead is a pedestrian. Sometimes I get a hankering for mischief. Truth be told, I can see well enough without my glasses to see pedestrians...at least really really overweight ones. ;) I figure that within 20 years (I'll be 70 by then), I will probably start not wanting to paddle the icy river and stick to calm lakes on windless warm days. Until then, give me ice pans...it's stunningly beautiful on the river at that time.

Robert N Pruden