Before I begin, I want to make something very clear — I am for all intensive purposes a libertarian. Now that I have that out in the open, let me show you what I started…
First off, I was cruising around on AllianceWake.com – think of it as the US Weekly of wakeboarding news and events. I usually check out the videos section, looking at the latest uploaded films. I watched one of the new top videos and was a bit perturbed by something I saw — something I don’t see very often. Aaron Rathy wakeboarding without a life jacket.
Is he the first to do this? Nah, I’ve seen it before – but its really hit me mentally – what if he was get his breath knocked out — wonder how fast a dude like that would sink?
We could ask Raequel Hoffman… I wonder if she would stop wearing a vest…
As stated before, in my eyes Aaron Rathy can do anything he wants – wear no life jacket, crush baby rabbits with the jaws of life, porno, tattoo the word “earth” on his forehead – whatever… its a free country. However, if you do something that is against what most humans have been socialized to (ala: Wearing a CGA life vest when participanting in water sports) — expect the wrath that comes with it. Every personal decision you make has consequences and possibly unintended wrath associated to it. I, personally, felt obligated to share my opinion that wakeboarding without at least a semi decent vest was stupid and suicidal on a large forum…
All and all, i thought there was some good discussion – here is the thread if you are interested in reading what others had to say.
As a safety guy, you might know my position on this topic. WakeBoarding=LifeVest Period!