New rule in my boat

[Hoggslayer]

At one time I only carried life jackets so I wouldn't get a ticket from the GW. Turns out they come in pretty handy to save lifes after your boat sinks in a storm on Lake Livingston. Everyone wears one in my boat from now on.

Hoggslayer

[Mayhem]

New rule in my boat

Seems like this would be a reasonable and commonplace rule....but it's not. I have a boat and the only people that wear life vests are kids or if I'm running alone. That's just stupid. One stump or a drunk idiot can ruin everything and that vest can be the difference between living and dying.

I agree with this.

Even when I am at the lake in the neighborhood I don’t usually where one and 90% of the time I am fishing alone and most the time have the lake to myself.

When I’m in my dads boat I have the kids where them but not me. Heck, I usually not even have the kill switch on.

I’m an idiot I know.


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[tradtiger]

Only one of these accidents was in my boat. I was there for the other three. The one in my boat is a long long story but in short, my now wife got hung up in a rope, detached her upper jaw from her skull behind the k9 teeth, yanked her out of the boat, rendered her unconscious and under the water. I jumped into the prop wash to trail back to where I thought she was at. I knew I had seconds and one shot to find her. AS I got close to where I thought she was at she popped up. She was in absolute shock. We drove her to Brownsville to the hospital (Ambulance would have had to come from Brownsville and then back so it was way faster) and the doctor said she was clueless as to how to put her back together. They took her by ambulance to Harlingen where by the grace of God was a reconstructive surgeon's convention. They made an announcement at the convention and the absolute best facial reconstruction surgeon in the world answered the call. That happened at 4 PM. She came out of her first of many surgeries at around 4 AM. When I talked to the doctor he said he had no clue how to put her back together. He asked God for direction and into it he went. After umpteen surgeries you can hardly tell she had that happen.

It's high time we wear them.

Wow! Got chills from this story. Amazing about the medical hands of God available at that moment. Who even knew there were conventions for reconstructive surgeons, and what would the odds be that such a pool of rare experts would be available at the precise moment in time and place your wife needed them. If this was a movie plot it would be considered absurd as totally contrived and unbelievable! Powerful testimony of facts!

As far as lifejackets, good swimmers don't swim well if they're unconscious. Really all there is to it.

[Hollywood]

Good thread, I actually made it a must for us on our last trip to POC a couple weeks ago. We were wearing the Onyx inflatables. Luckily we did not forget to take them off before each wade. We did each manage to put them on backwards a time of two. I learned last year to remove the Co2 cartridges when not in use. That was expensive for 3 new recharge kits. They got wet from rainwater.

[ultralite09]

Here's a trick for y'all to get in the habit of wearing your PFD and your kill switch.

Cut the kill switch in half and re crimp it and attach it to the kill switch loop on your PFD. That way you HAVE to have your PFD to run the boat. I can't make you wear it but at the very least you'll have to have it out to run the motor.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Tryton. Look at Mustang. Pressure activated. Has to be under water to pop. I pull a couple people off the bottom of the lake every year that were "good swimmers".

Glen,
Thanks for this information. I do a lot of wade fishing and I used to have one of those fishing vests with the inflatable bladder that I wore, but It finally got old...
Looking at the automatic ones, I didn't want to get one that would auto-inflate when it just got wet so I bought one that you pull the little hang tab to inflate. I'm going to get me one of the pressure activated ones to wear when running...

[dk_ace]

I won’t go without one anymore. I don’t own a boat, but I do own a life jacket. I became more aware of the need for one when we started duck hunting in a boat. The more I thought about it in that context, the more convinced I became that I needed to be wearing one anyway when I’m in a boat for any reason.

D

[Cold 1]

I have had this rule for the last few years in my boat. I had all the guys that bowfish with me regularly buy their own inflatable for when running . The ones that didn't want to don't get to go anymore.

I have had only one inflate automatic when it was dropped in the water.

[Tommyh]

never even occurred to me that it would inflate if it got rained on. since i have been looking at kayaks, this is a perfect thread. thank you

[crawdaddct]

I'm with you. Have lost two family members to boating accidents. Both at different times. One fell out of the boat, hit his head and drown. Leaving his young son in the boat alone. The other crashed his boat into a tree. Him, his brother, and a buddy swam toward shore. He did not make it, even though he grew up on the water. Witnessed a major accident with a group of teenagers out joy riding. Hit a submerged barge. Kids were banged up. Had to rescue one girl who flew out of the boat into the ship channel. It all happens too fast.

[Jon-Paul]

Anytime the big motor cranks on my boat I have my PFD and kill switch on me. Fishing a lot of tournaments this was a rule and since I made it an everyday practice.

[Clark]

Life jackets and kill switches save lives.

Life preservers I've always done.
But the kill switch..I learned the hard way.

Great advice.

[ShawnG]

Your boat, your rules.

Agreed.

[wal1809]

Wow! Got chills from this story. Amazing about the medical hands of God available at that moment. Who even knew there were conventions for reconstructive surgeons, and what would the odds be that such a pool of rare experts would be available at the precise moment in time and place your wife needed them. If this was a movie plot it would be considered absurd as totally contrived and unbelievable! Powerful testimony of facts!

As far as lifejackets, good swimmers don't swim well if they're unconscious. Really all there is to it.

It pains me to this day to think about it. A third of her upper lip was simply gone. She was cut all the way through the cheeks in five different places, from the front of her lips to the rear, where your wisdom teeth are located. They used skin graphs from inside her mouth to make a new lip and stitched the rest back together. At one time we had a photo from pre op. She was on her back on the table. He upper jaw from behind the k9s were flipped up over her nose sitting between her eyes.

We had put a towel on her face when we got her in the boat. She kept it there. She tried to talk and couldn't. I had no idea how extremely injured she really was. So on the way to the hospital I said let me see what we got here. I have seen many injured people in my career. I know enough about blood that when I saw the blood she was in really serious danger. A human brain realizes the brain is the most important part. When the head bleeds a lot an immediate coagulation begins. We call it head blood. It is near solid, very very thick and looks like a chunk of beef liver. Thats what I saw hanging from her mouth and I knew I had to get there.

So far as the surgeon being there. A long time ago I gave myself over to a higher authority. I don't know what God is and I don't have all the answers. I can say this, I have a understanding there is something and I trust it.

[ColinR]

I wish the auto inflatable PDF's were coast guard approved for kids! They are in many other country's around the world and you can get them here in kids sizes but so far the coast guard does not recognize them. However I have been told that most game wardens wont issue a ticket if that is what a kid is wearing. Been thinking about getting one for my son and risking the ticket.