Kemah COP body found after going overboard without PFD

call me a pussay but if were running at any decent speed I've got my jacket on. I'm a damn good swimmer while conscious but after hitting my head on the bow before going over I can't swim worth a lick.

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Im really surprised that in my lifetime, there have been pretty much no advancement in Type 1 PFDs. Lighter, less bulky, more comfortable. Where is the innovation push?

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There have been plenty of advancements and an increase in price. Of course people have gotten bigger too.

He wasn't on duty I'm assuming? Because I've never seen someone in law enforcement on duty without a pfd on.

If anything there should really always be at least once person driving that has their pfd on.

Other than on a jet ski or being pulled by a boat, I don't wear them. I don't wear seat belts either. They both annoy the hell out of me being around my neck

I wear a pfd anytime I'm under power. Once you get used to it, it's almost like a seat belt where you feel naked without it on. If I'm running trotlines, I wear my pfd. I've got a nice low profile vest with handy pockets that I use as a tool while doing tasks like setting lines, etc.

What really blows my mind is the # of duck hunters that wear tons of gear, including waders, and go speeding through the night in swamps in cold water and don't wear lifejackets or a kill switch. I ain't hunting with you if you're driving me through the dark without a kill switch on.

As far as wearing a kill switch goes, I'm not gonna STFU until the driver puts his on. That is a negligent act that can kill ME.

My brother in law has been running a copperhead SD since a few months after they moved to LA. He has to be asked to put on a kill switch driving in a swamp where you are all but guaranteed to hit something and have a tiller handle jarred out of your hand.

I've been running various canoes, pirogues, bateaus, skiffs and other rigs with surface drives, outboards and longtails on them longer than he's been alive. I prefer a longtail on a skiff when in our swamps due to the swamps around here being confined and lacking open water and very little opportunity for high speed traveling while up on step. I love a longtail; it's what I learned to operate as far as mm's go and it's capability is unmatched when you're plugging along as you poke your way through a thick swamp at idle- at least around our part of the world this is the case. We have 95% hard ground conditions and very little soupy mud.

With that said, everybody who learns to run a longtail knows that if you run one for long you'll quickly realize that you'd better have a kill switch on because at some point that tiller is getting away from you, and without quick deployment of said kill switch, the impending death spin will render you and your rig helpless. There are 2 things in life that are a certainty, no 3: Death, taxes, and a longtail operator having to stop himself from going into a death spin. It will happen eventually, and probably sooner than later.

One day while running in the swamp he wanted to switch rigs. He got in my skiff with my longtail, and, unbeknownst to me, proceeded to run without a kill switch or lifejacket on. He had never operated a longtail, and before he knew it, he was in a death spin. Luckily he was able to reach for the kill switch lanyard in time and killed the engine.

EVEN THEN, he doesn't wear one in his mm rig or outboard fishing rig, and he's not alone.

I can swim like a fish, but not when I've been cut in half by a boat prop or get knocked in the head by a boat passing me by. There are 2 activities associated with defying gravity that are inherently dangerous to humans; one pulls us down to dry ground and the other pulls us down to a lake bottom: We don't have wings and we don't have gills, and if we don't take precautionary measures to mitigate for certain death, then we will certainly meet death while doing them.

There's not a damned thing wrong with you as a man for wearing a pfd or a kill switch while on the water. Au contraire, it's a sign of prudence and planning and awareness. Ain't no shame in my game for wearing one, and if somebody ever did try to shame me, well, at this stage in my life I don't do things like fish or hunt with those types. You do you, but when I'm in the boat you gonna wear a kill switch and I'll wear my pfd, and that's all I can do to try and ensure that I make it back home with plenty of memories and some groceries to boot.

It's. Not. Worth. It.

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Hope your family enjoys the closed casket. Idiot.

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Everyone who doesn’t wear a PFD or seatbelt 100% of the time is obviously going to die because of those decisions

I’m less likely to wear either if people tell me I should. Mainly because I don’t like safety nannies.

If I’m in my big speed boat I don’t wear them but a wake isn’t gonna toss me out of that. If I’m in a fishing boat on the ocean or a bass boat on a lake I will usually wear one.

Kemah Chief of police, former army ranger, decided to try out MMA fighting at like 40, great guy.

Was a family friend. Very, very sad news

Only in writing. I generally am a man of few words in the spoken form.

I envy those like you with enough witt and humor to compress your reply, but my replies do come naturally.

I probably just need to get out and converse more, but I have my best fishing days when I'm alone.

Also I see no difference in posting 100x a day like so many do, which adds up to a long arse post, and posting a handful of times a week. Kind of a "Quality vs. Quantity" type of philosophy!

Oh well, cheers to PFDs and full livewells!