Thursday, April 13, 2017

NY State Lifejacket Law still in effect (and very necessary)


Sorry I have been such a boring blogger of late, it's been a rough Spring. Nowhere near enough time on, in, or near the water. Hope to remedy that on Sunday with my annual Spring swim with the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. How many years in a row do you have to do something before you can officially call it a tradition? :) Anyways, I've been absolutely aching for a water day, was torn between a swim and a paddle, but with a high of 75 on Sunday, I'm thinking a swim may better than a paddle - warm spring days here in the Northeast are actually not the best paddling days because the water is still very cold and you have to dress for that, not the air.

And as long as I'm talking about warm air/cold water paddling, my whole point in signing on to do this quick post is to share this quick Frogma P.S.A., same as I do every year around this time: 


The New York State off-season lifejacket rule -- the one that says anyone who's out in any recreational vessel of 20 feet or less must be wearing a lifejacket between November 1 and May 1 -- is still in effect. Also, we are having some wonderful weather here, but the water's still quite cold. Immersion gear (wetsuit or drysuit) is still a very good idea if you are going boating, but at the very, very least, please wear your lifejacket.

This is always a bad time of year for boating accidents, a capsize that would be an amusing minor mishap in August can go south extremely fast here in April, and even on into May. For more information, please visit any of the links in the cold-water safety link list to the right. Thanks for reading, let's all be safe out there!


3 comments:

Alana said...

A much needed reminder. People forget. Sharing this.

Rebecca Forstadt Olkowski said...

Good advice. Don't be caught without a life jacket. Now all I need is a boat.

bonnie said...

Thanks!

And the same day I wrote this, a fortunate rescue was in the news. The kids were lucky a guy with a rowboat was there!

And now I'm hearing 85 degrees on Sunday. Phew!