# Wear you life-jacket when skiing." **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 19, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938 "2011-04-19T07:54:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/1 "2011-04-19T07:54:54Z")
Remember, folks, Tony la Tuque says, “Always wear your life-jacket when skiing or boarding.” You never know what you’re going to come across when telemarking along an access road back to a lift. [Lutsen Edna Snowboarder falls off bridge into river - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVRmXWvQXCk) A giant rooster on teles with leather boots on the right at 1:46. A small dinosaur on alpine gear on the left at 2:00, wishing he were on tele gear. A snowboarder ahead on the left at 2:32 (when I shout in surprise - - advance at a single frame at a time to see him fall in) trying to end it all because he is not on tele gear. Glad he was OK. I recovered a pinned kayak earlier in the week [McIntyre River Pin Recovery Richard Culpeper 110414 - YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXnCd6BdoDU), so I’m glad I didn’t have to go for another dip. (Lutsen, Minnesota – 2011 April 17) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/2 "2011-04-19T08:57:39Z")
I grew up somewhere with no snow but plenty of water, so my immediate reaction was of course you would wear a life-jacket when (water)skiing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/3 "2011-04-19T13:18:11Z")
Man. That second video made my fingers cold! What did you do with the rescued one? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/4 "2011-04-19T16:29:15Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Man. That second video made my fingers cold! What did you do with the rescued one? I towed it using a breakable line (so that I would not get entagled), to where the paddler and I met up to continue our run. The paddler was safe on shore before I went after his boat. Here is the vid of the swim: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82TW-oA8SGM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82TW-oA8SGM) Here is the vid after he got back in (a bit of spray freezing on the lens): [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeePQNBT4kQ](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeePQNBT4kQ) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/5 "2011-04-19T16:38:15Z")
Is that was ski runs are like - one guy going 60 mph and dodging around other people going much slower, or clustered in clumps across the path? Yikes! ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/6 "2011-04-19T17:23:47Z")
Nah, that was just a path that connects runs, and the speed was fairly slow – it just looks fast due to the narrowness of the run. The runs themselves are usually wide enough that it is easy to stay clear of other skiers, but if there are some doddering about, I just slow down. Everyone – fast or slow – is out there to have a nice day. To a very high degree, the problem of speed differential is mostly self-limiting (or at least it is here in the mid-west USA / Northern Ontario), for the folks who mill about, turn erratically, or just plain sit down in the middle of a run, tend not to ski on the runs that are suited to fast skiing, which are steep and often very hard packed or icy (as odd as it sounds, nice soft snow that is easy to ski on slows you down a lot). I have to wonder, however, why some folks eat their young. That fellow did a header off a bridge into shallow water, so I was very concerned that he might have injured himself (thus my stopping rather than cruising on past). His pals, however, didn’t make a move toward him to see if he needed assistance. WTF? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/7 "2011-04-19T17:28:27Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Is that was ski runs are like - one guy going 60 mph and dodging around other people going much slower, or clustered in clumps across the path? Yikes! That’s a cat track back to the lifts. Sometimes you have to stay on long feeder runs that bring everyone back to the front of the ski area. It’s much better on telemark gear than on a snowboard. Those parts of the run are endured, not really enjoyed. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/8 "2011-04-19T17:37:26Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > It’s much better on telemark gear than on a snowboard His snowboard was still on the bridge, so my guess is that he fell in while he was taking off his snowboard so that he could start walking up the gentle rise in the cat track. ---
**Author:** ![JK\_Jakson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@JK\_Jakson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JK_Jakson)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/9 "2011-04-19T19:06:08Z")
i always used to wear it when ever go to pool 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wear-you-life-jacket-when-skiing/578938/10 "2011-04-20T04:15:17Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > His pals, however, didn’t make a move toward him to see if he needed assistance. WTF? Listen. My son left a party in his car to go buy beer, came back later on foot with a busted head and stab wound to the back of his neck. His buddies’ response? Gave him a beer and said “Dude. Yer bleedin’”. :rolleyes: