the great vest debate

KEEF · Pop Shuvit Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 218 City: orlando

dylo, your making it sound like people who dont wear vests are bad people. in some states its even legal to ride without a vest as long as you have a spotter. and the only reason why mags are strict on people wearing vests are strictly because of a contract agreement boat mfg.'s have for their ads to promote safe boating. because they are the ones who get effed in the long term if anyone gets hurt not the mag. oh and because we have to good ole wsia to keep a leash on us.

i am NOT telling anyone to go ride without a vest i am just saying nick keeps it sexy and some times he keeps it sexy without a vest and everyone is ok. remember when u do see pics in mags or clips in a video with no vests that these guys are professionals and they know what they are doing.

on another note sick riding guys keep it up.

De Oro · Backside 180 Joined: 20 Nov 2007 Posts: 1064 City: Austin

KEEF, i agree 100%

there are times to wear vests, times to not, and others where it might be a good idea.

but.... it all depends on your ability to swim and how well

If you are winching a gap with rocks then no vest is ok, but one that has a deep landing(deeper than 6 feet), then I would atleast wear a comp vest for protection and slight floatation.

I like wearing a vest when I ride boat because the impacts are much harder when you go w2w compared to a ski. Now one can argue that by law some states require a USCGA on a ski.

bob. · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 2:21 pm Post subject:

nick doesnt fall

...?

Lollar · 360 flip Joined: 19 Jun 2007 Posts: 8253

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10756 City: Jefferton

I pretty much agree--there are definite times and places for riders to wear a vest (and I don't think a shallow winching spot is not one of them). but also to say that these guys are professionals and it depends on swimming ability is something I can't put all of my faith into. that wakeboarder who died a few years back, corey kraut, was a total professional and he died doing a wake to wake 180. So it can happen to anyone on the simplest of maneuvers. If you're knocked out it doesn't matter how well you can swim or how well you can ride.

sk8tehwake · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject:

kyle41 · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 4:07 pm Post subject:

Im not trying to justify anthing here but im simply just curious. How many of you have witnessed a wakeskater getting knocked out. The only ones that come to mind are the guy that fell off the pool in ybor onto cement and matt manzari when he was winching down blanchard? I think it was. Im sure theres been other instances out there and im curious to know. I have mixed feelings about vests, mostly I find myself wearing a vest more for the fact that Its much less tiring then trying to wakeskate without one. If im winching I mostly never wear a vest as I know that there are plenty of people watching me and the landing area is usually very small and one of my friends would hopefully do the right thing and jump in on any whim that I might be hurt. As a member of the knox family we have seen the dangers first hand of not wearing a vest as an uncle of ares died slalom skiing while not wearing a vest. I find that if im in the bay I always usually always wear a vest as the water is generally very deep. However if im in lake seminole where the average depth is 3 to 5 ft depending on riding location I wear a vest maybe 75% of the time. Especially if im just going out there and doing some soul shredding where I know im not going to be trying new tricks and what not I simply love the freedom of not wearing a vest.

dalesk8 · Backside 180 Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 719 City: South OZ

scottyb · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject:

idk that many ppl who actually wear a vest that is CGA...

dylo, what vest do you ride in?

tad · 360 flip Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 5031

Everything Dylo said makes me think of that Eminem song back in the day. I forget which one, haha but it was basically about him telling everyone to fvck off and he wasn't responsible for everyone else's actions.

kyle41 · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject:

I think when it comes to cable parks, vests are a great idea. You have a lot of riders out there experienced or not trying tricks and are alot of times out of sight of other riders. Id hate to see someone drown because they were trying to do a gnarly trick off a distant kicker.

Some of the newer cable parks require you to wear ucsga vest and quite frankly that is fine by me.

JeffKnox · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 7:36 pm Post subject:

kyle41, what if you dont own a cga vest?

i always wear mine but frankly there are many times when i feel it is unnecessary .... but like kyle said our family is really adamant about always wearing it...

nick · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 10:30 pm Post subject:

dylo · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 10:31 pm Post subject:

Atleast the guys on the ski should be wearing some sort of vest..

Tad, Im not trying to be a debbie downer but i have experienced first hand a family member die because of this, im pretty passionate about it.

ScottyB, i wear an A-10 attack or a Liquid Malisha Sergeant. but over here ours are ALOT more bulkier. im 6'4'', 100kgs and its still floats me. my mate brought an A-10 back from the states and all i can say is that its rediculously thin. how can you expect to survive when you wearing one of those? even the Helium vests are not approved over here.

kyle41, no matter if its happened once or a hundred times, it still happens. how can you not wear a vest knowing a family member has died from the same sort of incident? soul shredding or not, like ESnow said, corey was just doing a wake to wake 1, its equal to us doing a FS shuv..

KEEF,

tad · 360 flip Joined: 07 May 2006 Posts: 5031

dylo · Posted: Sep 29, 2008 11:06 pm Post subject:

tad, how many people wakeskate compared to how many people drive?
theres probably only 30000 skaters worldwide (If that?) and hundreds of million of people drive world wide

anyway, i think ive said enough on the topic. like it or not, nick as many other pros are, is a role model.

kyle41 · Posted: Sep 30, 2008 12:45 am Post subject:

dylo, I simply can not wear a vest because I have certain circumstances where I myself have declared the environment a situation in where I do not want to wear a vest. Yes my parents and family members are extreme advocates of wearing a vest, I to a great extent go through the motions of explaining to my friends how you need to be extremely careful around permanent structures such as cement pilings as that was the cause of my uncles death as he was spraying pilings without a vest and had no spotter on the boat. I have never ridden behind a vessel without a vest when the water was above my head and yes i believe my beliefs in vests have been strengthened by my uncles loss. I do know however that in life we are given so many options to make are lives safer and many of us pass these gift wrapped selections by as we feel that we are responsible for are own lives.

Sometimes I feel that surfing would warrant a vest over wakeskating however I make the choice not to wear one.

Helmets are required in most skateparks but If they arent we generally do not wear one.

Some snowboarders wear helmets and some dont.

These are all choices that I feel we are responsible to make ourselves. Your vest may be bulky but Is it coast guard approved? Are you making the choice not to wear one? I feel that the parents should be responsible for there childrens vest selection until they are at a suitable age and knowledge of conditions to decide wheather a vest is deemed necessary or not. Nick Taylor is not responsible for a kid wearing a vest or not.

I do however feel that catfish are a very dangerous fish and wakeboarding should be outlawed as I was pretending to be a wakeboarder yesterday and was walking back to the cable start with no shoes on and stepped on a poisonous barb of a dead catfish and now my foot is in unbearable pain.

Jholiday · Posted: Sep 30, 2008 9:16 am Post subject:

without vests

electricsnow · cassette Joined: 14 Sep 2003 Posts: 10756 City: Jefferton

I don't think nick should be put on the spot about wearing or not wearing a vest, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to discuss this issue. It's something that's always been a source of debate in wakeboarding and now wakeskating.

To be honest, I don't want to wait for anyone to get knocked out (or whatever) in order to have some sort of poster child for vest safety. I just remember what it was like when corey kraut died, and I can only imagine what it was like for greg nelson to have to tell corey's mom that her son was gone. Of course many people didn't know him, but when these people are admirable public figures (because that guy was known for the vibes he brought to any session, and he was someone you wanted on your boat), you know them on some level and it doesn't hurt any less when you lose them. I just know that I'd be heart broken if a rider I respected passed away from not wearing an appropriate vest when the situation calls for it.

lollar, dylo didn't ruin anything and it's really not worth it to get pissy. it's easy enough to either split a good thread or delete any unnecessary trash. Trust me, we've done it before...