Vest or no vest?

Should people wear a vest or not? Pros don't. Is a comp vest enough? Discuss..

Seriously?

The answer to this question will give you the answer to whether you should wear a vest or not: "If you get knocked out while riding, would you rather float or sink?"

if you don't fall you don't need one!! for the rest of us it is a good idea!

Saying pro's don't is a bit of a bold statement..... Pro's sometimes don't would be a better claim. Even then it's under pretty controlled circumstances and still not the smartest move.

Trust me, if you get knocked out you probably want to float. I'm a big fan of what WBM was doing for a while where they wouldn't print pics of pro's without vests. It's really not a smart move and as role models for kids I think there isn't any reason for it.

If you really don't want to limit your mobility then try a Non-USCG vest. They're more comfortable and wont limit you at all. If you think your riding is held back by your vest, you're definitely wrong. Even with Non-USCG vests you are putting yourself more at risk. Weigh your priorities and make the call for yourself.

Don't chance it wear a vest

whats a vest?

Hasnt this topic been beatin to death yet?

I figured this thread would have mutated and evolved into a huge debate full of lols.

kalen my friend you've opened pandora's box

i dont where one when wakesurfing but i alwyas where one when i wakeboard.

i dont where one when snowboarding but i alwyas where one when i wakeboard.

Gerald, too good man.

Wow, didn't know that wakesurfers floated better than wakeboarders...natural selection at its best.

damn, you guys are driving me nuts! what the hell were you guys thinking????

wear [wair] verb, wore, worn, wear·ing, noun
–verb (used with object) 1. to carry or have on the body or about the person as a covering, equipment, ornament, or the like: to wear a coat; to wear a saber; to wear a disguise.
2. to have or use on the person habitually: to wear a wig.
3. to bear or have in one's aspect or appearance: to wear a smile; to wear an air of triumph.
4. to cause (garments, linens, etc.) to deteriorate or change by wear: Hard use has worn these gloves.
5. to impair, deteriorate, or consume gradually by use or any continued process: Long illness had worn the bloom from her cheeks.
6. to waste or diminish gradually by rubbing, scraping, washing, etc.: The waves have worn these rocks.
7. to make (a hole, channel, way, etc.) by such action.
8. to bring about or cause a specified condition in (a person or thing) by use, deterioration, or gradual change: to wear clothes to rags; to wear a person to a shadow.
9. to weary; fatigue; exhaust: Toil and care soon wear the spirit.
10. to pass (time) gradually or tediously (usually fol. by away or out): We wore the afternoon away in arguing.
11. Nautical. to bring (a vessel) on another tack by turning until the wind is on the stern.
12. British Dialect. to gather and herd (sheep or cattle) to a pen or pasture.
–verb (used without object) 13. to undergo gradual impairment, diminution, reduction, etc., from wear, use, attrition, or other causes (often fol. by away, down, out, or off).
14. to retain shape, color, usefulness, value, etc., under wear, use, or any continued strain: a strong material that will wear; colors that wear well.
15. (of time) to pass, esp. slowly or tediously (often fol. by on or away): As the day wore on, we had less and less to talk about.
16. to have the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate, esp. after a relatively long association: It's hard to get to know him, but he wears well.
17. Nautical. (of a vessel) to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind.
18. Obsolete. to be commonly worn; to be in fashion.
–noun 19. the act of wearing; use, as of a garment: articles for winter wear; I've had a lot of wear out of this coat.
20. the state of being worn, as on the person.
21. clothing or other articles for wearing, esp. when fashionable or appropriate for a particular function (often used in combination): travel wear; sportswear.
22. gradual impairment, wasting, diminution, etc., as from use: The carpet shows wear.
23. the quality of resisting deterioration with use; durability.
—Verb phrases24. wear down, a. to reduce or impair by long wearing: to wear down the heels of one's shoes.
b. to weary; tire: His constant talking wears me down.
c. to prevail by persistence; overcome: to wear down the opposition.

25. wear off, to diminish slowly or gradually or to diminish in effect; disappear: The drug began to wear off.
26. wear out, a. to make or become unfit or useless through hard or extended use: to wear out clothes.
b. to expend, consume, or remove, esp. slowly or gradually.
c. to exhaust, as by continued strain; weary: This endless bickering is wearing me out.

—Idiom27. wear thin, a. to diminish; weaken: My patience is wearing thin.
b. to become less appealing, interesting, tolerable, etc.: childish antics that soon wore thin.









where [hwair, wair]
–adverb 1. in or at what place?: Where is he? Where do you live?
2. in what position or circumstances?: Where do you stand on this question? Without money, where are you?
3. in what particular respect, way, etc.?: Where does this affect us?
4. to what place, point, or end? whither?: Where are you going?
5. from what source? whence?: Where did you get such a notion?
–conjunction 6. in or at what place, part, point, etc.: Find where he is. Find where the trouble is.
7. in or at the place, part, point, etc., in or at which: The book is where you left it.
8. in a position, case, etc., in which: Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.
9. in any place, position, case, etc., in which; wherever: Use the ointment where pain is felt.
10. to what or whatever place; to the place or any place to which: I will go where you go.
11. in or at which place; and there: They came to the town, where they lodged for the night.
–pronoun 12. what place?: Where did you come from?
13. the place in which; point at which: This is where the boat docks. That was where the phone rang.
–noun 14. a place; that place in which something is located or occurs: the wheres and hows of job hunting.
—Idiom15. where it's at, Slang. where the most exciting, prestigious, or profitable activity or circumstance is to be found.






are we clear?

So it is "WHERE did the rider go that did not WEAR a vest? I think he sank"...correct Joe?

excellent work, shawn! no detention for you.

All I did was ignore all those meaningless definitions haha

Exactly

(Message edited by zipe on January 07, 2008)

the majority of pros do wear vests, there at the point where they have made them so comfortalbe and "cool" that most people want to out do the others vest in the coolness factor. Its same as wearing a helmet snowboarding in the park, they pushed to make them comfortable and cool and got pros to buy in to it that its just the norm now.

" when you wakeboard, your body can travel at 40 mph, can hit the water with 3000 pounds of force, and- without a life jacket- can sink in 5 seconds. ......... The good news: 3 days later, your dead body will float"

thats the add in wbm

i think i'll stick with the vest

again?

^^^^ I never get tired of seeing that it's great it makes me giggle every time I see it

Donkey punching is way tighter

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the guy beating the horse is the animated version of the guy beating the copier/fax machine on office space

WEAR A VEST... we look at people riding without one as stupid.
Aloha Joe

I find it odd that people would choose to not wear it during wakesurfing (or wakeskating). At least whatever difference in flexibility it may make I could see being useful for wakeboarding, but wakesurfing and wakeskating? really?

I know i'm not the best at either (havent hit a 3 on a surfboard or even a good ollie on the skate) but i got the feeling that the upper body wasnt really used all that much outside of the occasional grab.... or perhaps that's why I'm not advancing.

everyone should wear a vest while wakeboarding behind a boat but as far as wakesurfing goes, you dont see a single person in the whole world saying anything about wearing a vest while surfing in the ocean

I wear a vest, but I'm also positively buoyant, which, when combined with my board, somehow keeps me afloat without it. Also when I'm cliff diving, I always wear a lifevest. People ask me why, doesn't it hurt? But in reality, if I knock myself out, or injure my neck, I'd rather be guaranteed to float in the water where someone can jump off behind me and get my head above the water...

I just picked up the Billabong comp vest, and I'll be riding with that next summer most of the time. I decided to get a smaller comp vest because where I've got a bigger chest (power/size lifting at it's finest, gotta love football) than most people, wearing a regular life vest does actually limit my mobility some as it stands.

I still see it as a bad idea to not wear a USCG vest, but for me they just feel so big and bulky, and unless I dump ever ounce of air out of my lungs, I don't sink, so yeah.

My recommendation though, always wear a life vest, especially when participating in high speed impact sports, like wakeboarding, wakeskating, or cliff diving, for those ballsy ones out there. Always wear a jacket.

so if you dont wear a life vest you die?

No, it's just more likely.

If I wouldn't have been wearing a vest when I blew out my eardrum I definitely would've drowned

I love the ocean surfing argument. If you go under, you are still attached to the board via a leash and have a chance of being recovered in time to make a difference. If you go under while wake surfing in not so clear water, say the Delta, good luck on recovery.

Nick, go under, let all your air out, fill your lungs with water and see how "positively buoyant" you are...good call on the vests!

That's what I was saying Shawn. If you blow out all of your air, you sink like a rock. I used to do a lot of diving, like, hunting for lost stuff on the bottom of the lake for people. I'm well aware of how the dynamics of sinking in the water work, more-so than most. I've taken plenty of safety courses, and this last summer, had I not had the wind knocked out of me and couldn't breathe, I would have inhaled a massive amount of water on a really bad fall, in which case, had I not had my CGA approved magical, nifty, and super cool LF Hinge vest on, I probably would have hung upside down in the water with my board holding me above the water, seeing as how somehow I dragged the board under the water with me without it coming off...

I'm the last person anyone needs to lecture about wearing a life vest/swimming/drowning. I'm painfully aware of many of these things, and having lived on a lake for twelve years, I've heard every single stern lecture about life vests that is humanly possible to hear. A friend of mine pulled a dead body and his barely living friend out of the water after a boat capsized, and they weren't wearing vests. Plus I'm an Eagle scout, and the sheer number of classes involving swimming that I have had to take for swimming, kayaking, whitewater rafting, canoing, and rescue classes, is utterly ridiculous ridiculous.

Just to be clear, this wasn't some kind of over defense of what you said, I'm just merely pointing out that I am well aware of any kind of consequences regarding not wearing a life jacket, and I also know most of my body's limits, save for knocking myself out wakeboarding, which luckily I have not done yet.

Which in reality, you should wear a life vest at all times when on the water, but realistically, who does that (not I!)?

10 years ago when vests, even Neo vests were like wearing parkas with little room for arm movement and torso mobility - the argument could be made that vests were borderline... being careful about my words here - - irritating. Also the trick skiing influence kind of grandfathered no-vest riding in. When I was younger I rode without a vest a lot. It is highly illegal in my state but my lake is mostly filled with people who know me, ride with me, let me teach their kids and generally are ok with what I do out there and the safety we operate within. Even back then (1994-2000)

Then Corey K died.
Then there were reports of other deaths for the same reason - no vest.

So the manufacturers stepped it up - and made vests that people actually can wear and not be adversely affected by them.

So now with the great stuff JetPilot is putting out with vests like the A-10 and many of the Helium products - that lack of mobility argument simply doesn't really exist anymore. Plus we're all now riding I'd say on average 5-7mph faster than those old days of yore, so it is inherently more dangerous.

That said - and to not be a total hypocrite - I often wakeskate without one but I can not say I'm really even proud of that. I guess I just like the feeling of finishing up a day with a vestless 10 min session on the skate. I know I'm not alone on this because I see way more footage of vestless wakeskaters (even hitting sliders) than vestless wakeboarders.

(Message edited by boomshot on January 09, 2008)

Darwinism in action.

The 08 Murray Jet Pilot vest is CGA and Murray will not put his name on a Non CGA vest, sooo not only do pros wear vest, but some are going to CGA vest like Murray.
Shaun can you confirm this?
Is this true what I have been hearing, I know I ordered you're 08 vest for the shop and it was CGA.

Why was it back when Cordell died from not wearing a vest the magazines put out a statement saying they would no longer allow pics in the mags without vests? I think that rule stuck for about 4-6 months. I personally think its sad, I used to not wear one, back 10+years ago, I wouldn't do it now for anything.
The one thing I cant understand, wouldn't the riders sponsors want them advertising the product by wearing it instead of showing some sticker? The magazines could really help out in this battle by simply not allowing a pic unless the rider has on a vest. Again, its a pointless subject, the mags wont do anything, but you should wear one.

swass (swass) and from you, huge doucebaggery in action for that comment.

It's not my fault your gene pool doesn't have a deep end.