Tom Francis wrote:
On 1 Jan 2007 17:51:55 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:
Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
On 1 Jan 2007 16:59:21 -0800, "Chuck Gould"
wrote:
info that might be useful to members of fishing clubs, etc, elsewhere
in the country:
Interesting.
I wonder how they are "properly fitted".
The only real way to tell if a child's vest is properly fitted is to
put the child in a pool with the life jacket and see if the child will
float face up instead of face down or even upside down.
Has to do with the child's center of gravity. Not all children of a
certain age or weight have the same center of gravity.
Now, ask me how I know this?
Well, ok - I'll tell you anyway. I went through six different vests,
all of the appropriate size and fit until I found one that would allow
my niece to float upright over a sustained period of time, head out of
the water in a dead float.
Here's a link to a State of Oregon Marine Board site that has at least
a basic drawing of a properly fitted life jacket.
http://www.marinebd.osmb.state.or.us/
I can almost certainly guarantee they will be fitting these by sight
and feel and not subjecting the kids to a dunking. :-)
Even when the oddball COG's of kids at various stages of development
are taken into account, it would seem likely that the child is better
off with a jacket that is properly sized, etc, than with a randomly
selected jacket intended for an adult.
You would think so wouldn't you, but it's not the case at all. All
the PFDs I tested made the child float. Unfortunately, they made the
kid float face down or forced the child onto her back. I finally
found one Sterns vest style that kept her upright. These were
children's PFDs by the way - not "randomly selected" adult jackets -
I'm not that stupid.
Nobody implied that you were stupid or that you recommended putting
kids in randomly selected adult life jackets.
The testing you describe is an exhaustive process that will certainly
produce a better fit and result than simply fitting a jacket to a child
without testing it. Assuming that most people attending a sportsman's
show, etc, are not going to want their kid dunked- (and doing so might
scare some little kids so badly that they'll never go near the water
again), the fitting of a life jacket by sight and feel is better than
not having a kids jacket aboard- in which case the kids would indeed be
reduced to wearing randomly selected adult jackets.
Part of the problem is that children aren't heavy enough for a one
size fits all strategy you have with adult PFD's. Children of the
same age and weight can have completely different body types which
changes their center of gravity and because of this they will float in
different attitudes to the water. A shorter child will tend to float
differently with a PFD than one who is tall or one with long legs. A
child can also change very rapidly rendering a PFD ineffective in
terms of fit - what may fit this January, might not fit in July.
One of the benefits of the program is that people can bring back "last
year's"
PFD if their kid has experienced a growing spurt and get a bigger
size.
You can get away with one size fits all for adults because of the
weight difference - with children, it's a whole different ball game
and just having one "properly fitted" isn't the solution either. I
wouldn't gamble my child's future on it.
In which case you've got a very lucky child. Compared to what many
people do, (buy enough life jackets as part of a "Coast Guard Kit" to
meet the minimum safety requirements and then toss the whole works into
the bottom of a locker filled with junk and have no idea whether any of
the jackets fit the 350-pound papa boater or the 35-pound baby boater),
the giveaway program is an enormous improvement. It's not as exhaustive
a procedure as you recommend and there is no doubt yours is better- but
the program will get some kids into kids' life jackets who otherwise
wouldn't be. Few people (and not all chandlers) will have the patience
for the process of buying, testing, and returning a long series of life
jackets for each child and then repeating the process at each stage of
the child's growth and development.
One person in 100 would actually do what you recommend, even though the
advice is excellent.