Quote Originally Posted by Irulan View Post
I think to not wear it, or to only keep it handy is absolutely TERRIBLE advice to give a beginner.
Where I'm from, the kayaking we did was extremely tame -- flat creeks and rivers with negligible current, and only about 2' deep (had to do lots of portages where it was even shallower). It was also hot as hades, which PFDs made worse. I'd say only about 10% of paddlers we saw wore PFDs -- a bit different from bike helmet use, which appeared to be about 90% in our area. We carried our PFDs under those paddling conditions but didn't wear them. We did wear them on the rare times we took the kayaks to deeper water or faster moving creeks.

I didn't suggest that she shouldn't wear it as you imply...I said that she should carry one and that she should wear it since she was nervous.

Maybe I should have said that she MUST wear one. I just don't like to dictate to people what they MUST do.