On Tue, 02 Jan 2007 11:20:11 GMT, 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.

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.

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.

Well, hopefully the fit is done as well as possible on site, and the
parents are told to test the fit in water at their earliest. That covers
the bases fairly well.

Still sounds like a good way to get kids into life jackets which are *not*
randomly picked adult jackets!
--
John