Saw on Fox 4 this morning a kayaker turtled and drowned in the Trinity, it was reported he could not make it to the bank because of the amount of debris in the water. Did not hear mention of whether he was wearing a PFD or not.

heard it this morning on the radio.
Sad to hear it, you guys buddy up, some scary waters out there.

Sad deal

just saw a news report on the net, there were two yakers, one made it ok.

Lots of yakkers out there now W/ lil to no experience.
The trinity is still flowing really strong. Tragic :-/

Very true, you know the sport is growing when Wal-Mart jumps in the game. Sadly I see very few newbies actually take a PFD serious. Swift current, cheap yaks, and little to no experience is a bad combination

+1000!!! Especially with all the events they have out there that involve kayaks and tubes and floating the river. Its just not safe right now until it all settles down and they slow down releasing of water from the lakes. Current and debris make for a very dangerous paddle. I heard on the news it was an inflatable kayak and he was not wearing a pfd.

Sheesh. Inflatable and debris just don't sound like they go together... I just can't imagine not wearing a pfd either. I wear mine all the time, every time. It's not even uncomfortable. It is an expense though, and some people don't think their lives are worth the $50 it would take to buy one.

You would think that wearing a PFD is common sense, but I got some nasty responses when I posted this idea on a Facebook page. I have to pull the TPWD requirement and when I did, they argued that the PFD only needs to be on the kayak not on themselves!

Chances of drowning with a PFD are remote to none and it makes a difference between a search/rescue of a missing person vs a body recovery requiring divers.

Always the same argument, that they don't wear it but have it close at hand.
Lot of good it does when you flip and you go one way, and the PFD goes another!

I agree. It's just different than being on a boat. Having the same requirement makes no sense. No offense to you guys who don't like wearing one, but I just don't see what the problem is. I mean, you get more zippered pockets! Who can't use more of those?

It sucks a person is dead. That's a good reason though to talk about water safety.

It takes a higher level of skill, and sometimes a higher level of vessel, to handle flooded rivers. The currents, plural, are usually much faster overall and move in different directions than the same river at normal stage. Flood stage rivers also carry debris. These aren't just straight pieces of log. It's whole trees. They sweep up a lot of other junk, too. A fast moving river can carry a shopping cart like a man catcher sized under water cage. Moving water is a powerful force.

Wear the PFD. We even have paddle-centric PFD made to be minimally intrusive. They even come with style, so you don't have to look like a dweeb. And so what if you don't think it's cool to wear a PFD. Wear that or be wearing your finest in a coffin.

Always hate reading new like this. Prayers up for family and friends!

even if he made it to the bank
it would be hard to crawl out of the river in the stretch he was in
sorry

Still haven't found him.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Missing-Kayaker-Search-Now-a-Recovery-Mission-310680631.html