CHOKEPOINTS

Why you should wear a life jacket as PNW boating season kicks off

May 22, 2020, 6:43 AM | Updated: 10:45 am

Life jacket...

Wearing a life jacket on the water could very well save your life. (Unsplash)

(Unsplash)

In a non-pandemic year, Memorial Day weekend symbolizes the start of the late-spring/early-summer charge into the outdoors around the Pacific Northwest, and that means a lot more people in and on the water. The number one killer on the water: not wearing a life jacket.

Don’t be a ramp hog, and other boating tips for the summer

We all know Washington waters can kill. The water is so cold it shocks your body. You raise your arms and open your mouth without control, and you go under. Lake Washington is running at 54 degrees right now. Puget Sound is about 50 degrees. River temperatures near the mountains are in the 40s. The lower reaches are in the 50s.

You can be the best swimmer around, but you cannot fight that cold water shock. That’s why boating and safety experts, like King County Marine Rescue Dive Unit Sergeant Mark Rorvik do not understand why more people don’t wear life jackets.

“As long as I have been doing this job, I’ve never pulled a drowning victim off the bottom of a body of water that was wearing a life jacket,” he said.

Derek VanDyke is the education coordinator for the state parks and recreation commission boating program. He said putting on a life jacket is such an easy thing to do.

“No one ever plans on ‘boy, I’m going to get up this morning and I’m going to go boating and I’m going to fall in by accident today, and I might drown,'” he said. “That’s never the plan. It’s becoming an accidental swimmer, from a boater to a swimmer and the impact of the cold water.”

You do not want to become an accidental swimmer without a life jacket on.

So is there a certain segment of the population that seems to avoid life jackets?

“Our demographic of who dies in boating accidents is men, typically in their 40s,” VanDyke said.

It’s guys like me who know everything.

Rob Sendak is the state boating program manager, and this is the most common excuse he gets.

“‘I’ve been boating in Puget Sound for 30 years, and I’ve never had an accident,'” Sendak hears all the time. “That whole attitude that ‘nothing is going to happen to me,’ until it does.”

The experts said that a lot of guys my age don’t like wearing life jackets because we still think they are the horrible, orange blobs our parents made us wear as kids. Life jackets are so much different and so much better today. They are even stylish. There is no reason why you shouldn’t wear one.

Don’t forget: State law requires that there be a life jacket for everyone on board any vessel, and that includes paddleboards. Kids 12 years old and under are required to wear them. Paddleboarders also have to have a noise maker with them.

Could ridesharing on the water work in Western Washington?

For Sergeant Rorvik, wearing a life jacket is a no-brainer.

“You come across people that will tell you that they do not know how to swim, and they’re not wearing a life jacket,” he said. “It baffles me.”

We also discussed alcohol on the water, which is never a good combination if you’re operating the boat. The good news is BUI’s are going down, but there has been an increase of people under the influence of marijuana while operating a boat.

And I discovered this interesting tidbit from U.S. Coast Guard recreational boating program specialist Dan Shipman.

“The Coast Guard doesn’t recognize the state law for being able to possess marijuana,” he said. “If you’re out in Puget Sound and the Coast Guard stops you, you just have to realize that they are going to enforce federal law upon you, and the majority of the time they will write you a ticket and confiscate it.”

And that’s for any weed on the boat, not just for the person driving.

Chokepoints

I-5 overpass 145th seattle...

Chris Sullivan

Sullivan: I-5 overpass at 145th in Seattle to close

The North 145th Street overpass of I-5, right there at the new light rail station, is about to close for seven months.

2 hours ago

Photo: WSDOT crews pump concrete at new Veterans Drive tunnel....

Nate Connors

Late night I-5 closures coming up this week as WSDOT works on new tunnel

Contractors WSDOT are prepping for work on the new Veterans Drive Tunnel beneath I-5, adjacent to State Route 516.

15 hours ago

Image: A Pierce Transit Stream Bus can be seen in Pierce County....

Micki Gamez

South Sound travelers may opt for transit after major service change

It's been seven years since Pierce Transit announced a major service change. The change means more access to Tacoma and the region.

2 days ago

headphones windshield obstructions...

Chris Sullivan

Sullivan: Driving with headphones, windshield obstructions in Washington

It's another episode of "rules of the road," I'm tackling two driving questions: Using headphones or windshield obstructions while driving.

2 days ago

four-way stops...

Chris Sullivan

Sullivan: Why do so many people get freaked out at four-way stops?

There is no mystery to how four-way stops work, so why do so many people mess up this simple maneuver?

7 days ago

There's a right way and a wrong way to turn into traffic with a bus lane. (Graphic: Bill Kaczaraba,...

Chris Sullivan

Sullivan: Sweeping bus-only lanes, what’s the right move?

I received feedback from my story on lane sweeping last week. But what happens when you are turning and the closest lane is restricted?

9 days ago

Why you should wear a life jacket as PNW boating season kicks off