Wear your life vest

Wayne Kohan

Wayne Kohan

Life of the Party
Whenever I read a story about someone falling out of their float tube, or even "turtling" it, I wonder about how that can possibly happen. Well, Rich and I were out bass fishing this past week at a hike in lake one evening. It was nearing dark, the sun had set and so I had taken my sunglasses off and put them up on my hat. As the mosquitoes started to make their evening appearance, I decided to swipe at them with my hat and my sunglasses flew into the water. I saw them sinking and reached quickly in front of me to grab them and suddenly I was in the water. So were my two rods. I lost my grip on the glasses but grabbed the rods. Luckily Rich was about 40 feet away and headed over. Both of us wear inflatable life vests on the water. After about 10 seconds my vest inflated and I was able to relax and get my senses about me. I got the rods and gave them to Rich. I have a Super Fat Cat tube, and it is almost impossible to grab and hold that thing when you are in the water. I'm thinking I may hang a strap on the side of it for future use. I ended up swimming over to a shallower are about 20 feet away where I could stand and get back into the boat. It really ended up being no big deal in the long run, but certainly could have turned out much worse.

What I learned:
1. Wear a life vest. Once my vest inflated and I could relax and not work so hard to keep my head up, life was much better.
2. I have Outcast Power Fins and they weigh you down a lot.
3. I will never be able to get into my properly inflated float tube in deep water, I am 65 y/o though, I would like to see someone try to do that in a pool.
4. If I was alone, things would have been immensely more difficult.
5. If this would have happened while fishing in winter or early spring with frigid water temps, things would have been immensely more difficult.
6. The SFC that I have slides upon the water as you try to grab it, I need something to grab on to.
7. I've had several friends and family tell me I was lucky to be wearing a life vest, there is no luck involved in that. I hate wearing a life vest as it gets in the way, I can't use my pockets easily and it's a pain to change jackets and other layers as the temps change. But I wear it anyway.
 
Wayne Kohan said:
Whenever I read a story about someone falling out of their float tube, or even "turtling" it, I wonder about how that can possibly happen. Well, Rich and I were out bass fishing this past week at a hike in lake one evening. It was nearing dark, the sun had set and so I had taken my sunglasses off and put them up on my hat. As the mosquitoes started to make their evening appearance, I decided to swipe at them with my hat and my sunglasses flew into the water. I saw them sinking and reached quickly in front of me to grab them and suddenly I was in the water. So were my two rods. I lost my grip on the glasses but grabbed the rods. Luckily Rich was about 40 feet away and headed over. Both of us wear inflatable life vests on the water. After about 10 seconds my vest inflated and I was able to relax and get my senses about me. I got the rods and gave them to Rich. I have a Super Fat Cat tube, and it is almost impossible to grab and hold that thing when you are in the water. I'm thinking I may hang a strap on the side of it for future use. I ended up swimming over to a shallower are about 20 feet away where I could stand and get back into the boat. It really ended up being no big deal in the long run, but certainly could have turned out much worse.

What I learned:
1. Wear a life vest. Once my vest inflated and I could relax and not work so hard to keep my head up, life was much better.
2. I have Outcast Power Fins and they weigh you down a lot.
3. I will never be able to get into my properly inflated float tube in deep water, I am 65 y/o though, I would like to see someone try to do that in a pool.
4. If I was alone, things would have been immensely more difficult.
5. If this would have happened while fishing in winter or early spring with frigid water temps, things would have been immensely more difficult.
6. The SFC that I have slides upon the water as you try to grab it, I need something to grab on to.
7. I've had several friends and family tell me I was lucky to be wearing a life vest, there is no luck involved in that. I hate wearing a life vest as it gets in the way, I can't use my pockets easily and it's a pain to change jackets and other layers as the temps change. But I wear it anyway.
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Glad you're ok!
 
Glad all turned out well, Wayne.
 
Congratulations on your survival, and your dedication to wearing a PFD whenever afloat.

I had a similar mishap a few years back, when I reached for a fly snagged on a lilypad....from a kayak that I had used for years but had never adjusted the seat to the highest position until that day, plus packing too much stuff high in the rear cargo well, as well as the Scotty anchor mount/anchor contributing to the whole sorry cluster.

I was wearing a good non-inflatable PFD, as I always do.

Happens in 'the blink of an eye'. Suddenly I'm underwater looking up at top deck of the overturned kayak...and then I bobbed to the surface like a duck because of the PFD.

I've rolled a kayak many times in a river, but didn't expect it to happen on a small lake....especially in a big offshore fishing yak.
 
Glad you're okay, thanks to you always wearing a life jacket on the water. That message can't be repeated enough. Too many needless drowning, still.
 
Wayne glad you are ok and everything seemed to be alright in the end, did you end up getting your sunglasses back too? Did you lose any other items?

If you don't mind, can you tell us what type of PDF you were wearing? Now that you went through that experience, did it perform like you wanted it to?

Peach
 
Peach said:
Wayne glad you are ok and everything seemed to be alright in the end, did you end up getting your sunglasses back too? Did you lose any other items?

If you don't mind, can you tell us what type of PDF you were wearing? Now that you went through that experience, did it perform like you wanted it to?

Peach
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I initially had my sunglasses but must have dropped them when I first scrambled around in the water. I have a Mustang brand inflatable, it’s a few years old now. I’m going to buy a rearm kit, about $35.
I remember being in the water thinking that my vest didn’t inflate, and then it did, probably after about 5-10 seconds. For that reason, I would not use an inflatable in moving water where I would want the buoyancy immediately.
I ended up losing the sunglasses (prescription Ray-Bans) and my Dr. Slick forceps/scissors. I lost a little of my sense of invincibility as well.
 
Thanks for sharing - just wanted a real time report on the PDF performance. Sorry about your Sunglasses and forceps, but minor losses considering what else could of happened as you mentioned in your orginal post.

Peach
 
Glad you're ok! Yikes.

I'm surprised it took that long to deploy! I recently dropped my Mustang onto the deck of my Hobie after beaching it in 3 inches of water, and the end with the trigger slid thru the drive hole...POOF - instantly.

Which also brings a reminder to maybe keep a spare re-arm kit on hand for multiday fishing trips!
 
I keep some of my essentials (Garmin satellite communicator, cellphone for photos, hook sharpener, a few spare leaders) in the PFD pockets and on a couple of zingers (nipper and forceps)...and a whistle. Not only is the PFD potentially useful keeping me afloat in an emergency it's also useful in a practical sense....and constantly reinforces a good habit.
 
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Thanks for sharing, I even wear my inflatable in our 19' jet boat. Just saw on the Spokane news that someone fell off of a stand up board and they have not found them yet. Scary.
 
Wayne Kohan said:
I initially had my sunglasses but must have dropped them when I first scrambled around in the water. I have a Mustang brand inflatable, it’s a few years old now. I’m going to buy a rearm kit, about $35.
I remember being in the water thinking that my vest didn’t inflate, and then it did, probably after about 5-10 seconds. For that reason, I would not use an inflatable in moving water where I would want the buoyancy immediately.
I ended up losing the sunglasses (prescription Ray-Bans) and my Dr. Slick forceps/scissors. I lost a little of my sense of invincibility as well.
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What was it like swimming with it on? With all that buoyancy up high in the front it seems like it would be hard to swim aggressively, like if you were trying to avoid a strainer.
 
I'm sorry to hear of your "misfortune" with the loss of your sunglasses but I am glad you chose to have the PFD on and are OK!
Thank You for the reminder that we should all be as safety conscious!
Wayne Kohan said:
6. The SFC that I have slides upon the water as you try to grab it, I need something to grab on to.
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I have had my SFC scoot away while just trying to get into the seat to launch and wound up on my butt in a couple feet of water. Maybe a loop of webbing through the D rings on each side as grab straps or a tether-retractor of some sort would help.
 
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Eastside said:
So that I don’t have to wonder if the vest will inflate, I wear my NRS Chinook.
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Me too! But like Wayne I like to take an inflatable PFD into hike-in lakes.
 
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PhilR said:
What was it like swimming with it on? With all that buoyancy up high in the front it seems like it would be hard to swim aggressively, like if you were trying to avoid a strainer.
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I wouldn’t use an inflatable life vest in moving water personally, but to answer your question it would be hard to swim aggressively I would think. It was not a problem in the lake though. I still had my flippers on to aid in swimming.
 
I was also always motivated to wear a life jacket, so I could immediately keep my wits about me if I needed to help kids, or others, in an unexpected situation, and mostly kept up the practice after the kids were grown up and elsewhere. Thanks for the reminder! I stick w buoyant pfds that don’t need to inflate. Jay
 
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