Rhino wrote:I've just taken a call from Transport Safety Victoria. They are very well aware of recent events, and many others that have escaped Vyak's attention.
There are things happening behind the scenes which I am not at liberty to speak about yet. Watch this space.

I am sure there are, and it will have NOTHING at all to do with preventing fools from doing what fools do best. What it WILL do is further fatten selective purses.

Regulation addresses SYMPTOMS not CAUSES. Stop the stupid nongs from being able to purchase the product in the first place. Will that happen....no never! because we are hoodwinked into believing that free enterprise is always good.

I was able to purchase and sell ANY kind of Knife from my Tackle Shop, it was and remains illegal to carry that knife.....How STUPID is that...I chose not to offer or sell any, other than filleting Knives.....If they are dangerous weapons don't sell them.
Even the humble fillet knife can be a weapon......

Safety issues are not confined to the Bay, fools are also fond of our rivers and get into trouble there to....lives are lost.

One thing that would help is to make it mandatory to wear a PFD on ANY floating device..........( Surfers beware...big brother is watching!!)

Hvalross wrote:.

One thing that would help is to make it mandatory to wear a PFD on ANY floating device..........( Surfers beware...big brother is watching!!)

PFD cant be worn , and wouldn't be safe when attempting to surf. Stand up paddle boards within a certain distance of shore are no different than surfers, and in fact many do use them for surfing. A surfboard doesn't sink, can't get swamped or drift as a result of lost paddle, have issues with inability to renter. as long as leg straps are used dont become seperated. % of rescues per amount of surfers in the water is low compared to kayaks. Fitness and abilty of surfers probably helps too, along with dressed for being in the water, a lot of kayakers especially fishos are well past their athletic prime.

AP-M wrote:I got a Anaconda catalogue in the mail today and noticed these in the kayak section

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Why does it say "should" when Transport Safety Victoria says a pfd is to be worm? How can they advertise "should" as this implies optional choice not a Have To?????

http://www.transportsafety.vic.gov.au/_ ... ochure.pdf

Speaking of licencing the PWC here in VIC is a Pathetic revenue raising piece of drivell. Yes I did it a couple of years ago - No Practical on the water test, No understanding of rips, Current, tides, Weather affects on sea conditions etc. To drive you need 120 Hrs - at least if you get into strife you can pull over, get out and walk etc. But on the water!!!!

Maybe a type of water police like the PSO's on trains to patrol beaches etc should reduce incidents (Kayak rego fees can fund this like fishing licences). It's not going to go away and as we know anyone on Ebay, Gumtree and stores will sell anything just for money. The authorities have a responsability to stop this rubbish happening. We're in the 21st Century. As someone said earlier Transport Safety needs to run media campains etc to educate like the smoking ads or like they used to years ago with seat belt ads.

People buying these things and getting into strife NOT becasue they are idiots. They think it's ok because they see them in shops at parks, beaches etc but they don't get told all the facts.
How many of us have done something we thought was ok in our lifetime and were fortunate the outcome wasn't bad?
Nobody here ever try take a short cut or do something to save some money???
Ok so I'm rambling (Some of you have more knowledge and maybe better ideas than me)

laneends wrote:

Hvalross wrote:.

One thing that would help is to make it mandatory to wear a PFD on ANY floating device..........( Surfers beware...big brother is watching!!)

PFD cant be worn , and wouldn't be safe when attempting to surf. Stand up paddle boards within a certain distance of shore are no different than surfers, and in fact many do use them for surfing. A surfboard doesn't sink, can't get swamped or drift as a result of lost paddle, have issues with inability to renter. as long as leg straps are used dont become seperated. % of rescues per amount of surfers in the water is low compared to kayaks. Fitness and abilty of surfers probably helps too, along with dressed for being in the water, a lot of kayakers especially fishos are well past their athletic prime.

Agree.
What I was trying to show by that is, no matter WHAT is done to make something safer, someone somewhere will be disadvantaged.........it is not possible to stop stupid actions, perhaps as has been suggested an awareness campaign would work, its true, we have all done silly things

First off, I think it needs to start at educating the retail outlets that are selling yaks (and I don't mean kayak stores that specialize in yaks ) but places like Anaconda, bcf etc where they have kids working on weekends who know nothing about the laws or kayaking. I was at a Annoconda store looking at their yaks and a young guy was trying to sell a yak to a couple for their kids. I was finding some of the crap amusing until I hear the wife talk about the expense of life jackets and he said "if you can't afford them now, get them later down the track", this is where I intervened and set the record straight. Turns out the kid didn't know it was law to wear them or what safety gear they had to have.
Secondly, ALL states should come in line with the wearing of PFD's. It's amazing how many don't wear them at Mallacoota because they "don't have to in their state".
Thirdly, all manufacturers should embed (so it can't fall off) a sticker saying where the yak can be used, inland waters / open water etc. They design / manufacture a yak for specific uses, so it should be defined on it.
Last, If a safety coarse was mandatory, they would learn the basics and a re-entry session could be part of that coarse. I am in NO way suggesting a licence.

Watching a guy up the lake the other day, on his el cheapo yak who had no paddle skills what-so-ever, nearly fall off 3-4 times come back in and load a kid about 3yr old between his legs and set off.....neither had a life jacket. I was about to go down and have a word with him, when he obviously had second thoughts (probably due to the wobbling he was doing) turned around and paddled along the edge in about a foot of water.

Jenko wrote:First off, I think it needs to start at educating the retail outlets that are selling yaks (and I don't mean kayak stores that specialize in yaks ) but places like Anaconda, bcf etc where they have kids working on weekends who know nothing about the laws or kayaking. I was at a Annoconda store looking at their yaks and a young guy was trying to sell a yak to a couple for their kids. I was finding some of the crap amusing until I hear the wife talk about the expense of life jackets and he said "if you can't afford them now, get them later down the track", this is where I intervened and set the record straight. Turns out the kid didn't know it was law to wear them or what safety gear they had to have.
Secondly, ALL states should come in line with the wearing of PFD's. It's amazing how many don't wear them at Mallacoota because they "don't have to in their state".
Thirdly, all manufacturers should embed (so it can't fall off) a sticker saying where the yak can be used, inland waters / open water etc. They design / manufacture a yak for specific uses, so it should be defined on it.
Last, If a safety coarse was mandatory, they would learn the basics and a re-entry session could be part of that coarse. I am in NO way suggesting a licence.

Watching a guy up the lake the other day, on his el cheapo yak who had no paddle skills what-so-ever, nearly fall off 3-4 times come back in and load a kid about 3yr old between his legs and set off.....neither had a life jacket. I was about to go down and have a word with him, when he obviously had second thoughts (probably due to the wobbling he was doing) turned around and paddled along the edge in about a foot of water.

Great post!

Rhino wrote:I've just taken a call from Transport Safety Victoria. They are very well aware of recent events, and many others that have escaped Vyak's attention.

Hardly surprising, there will be a couple of deaths this summer with all these idiots messing about.
I was out for a few hours today and it was blowing a gale as i come in n packed up and there was was some young peanut in a short cheap yak with no pfd, soaked