Vest test

Following on from recent discussions here about the requirement to wear buoyancy vests while windsurfing, I went out and got myself a Forward WIP Flow Neo 50N vest. This morning I gave it a test run down at Moana.

By way of background, when I was working, I ended up being responsible for the OHS of 100s of people across several work areas, as well as overseeing the development and implementation of safe working procedures for all kinds of equipment and chemicals, some of which were virtually harmless, others of which could kill or maim you if you were careless. So I get safety. But that experience also showed us that some legislated procedures are totally inappropriate for their stated purpose: at the extremes, perfectly safe situations were deemed dangerous, while, more surprisingly, some very dangerous ones were not rated accordingly. So, for some procedures, the safety requirements were absolutely necessary, others were total overkill, while most simply didn't make any difference one way or the other to standard practice.

The debate about buoyancy vests for wave sailors has been around for years. The experience and opinion of most wave sailors, which I share 100%, is that such vests are not only unnecessary, but they are potentially dangerous in that they prevent you from diving to safety when caught inside a breaking wave or they may prevent you from easily getting out from under a sail after a crash. On the other hand, having some kind of assistance if some gear breaks when you are out to sea isn't too bad an idea in principle.

According to the SA rules, you need to have a buoyancy device of 50N within 400m of shore (however that is measured) and at least 100N if further out than that. Having looked at the specs for various vests, plus a bit of other detective work, I thought there is a good chance that a 50N vest might not seriously impede the ability to dive under a wave. The amount of neoprene in one of the 50N vests doesn't look a lot, and the amount of buoyancy it provides is probably less than a short surfboard or a body board ... and you can go under a breaking wave hanging onto your board.

Which is why I bought a WIP Flow... Here's a link to it:

forward-wip.com.au/en/85-flow-neo-vest-50n.html

So... down at Moana this morning, I set-up with my full sailing attire: wetsuit (4:3), booties, helmet, harness and the WIP Flow and went out for a swim in (freezing!) 1-2' swell. This is what it was like.

First up, the vest is comfortable and fits easily over the high back of my harness (a high back seat model). The front of the vest is well clear of the harness hook, and would be for a waist harness as well. The vest feels as though it would ride up a bit in the water. In fact it didn't. But just is case there is a loop at the front through which you can tie the front of the vest to your spreader bar (I used a strip of velcro, which made it feel a little better).

In the water, it's really easy to swim with the vest on. While it clearly provides additional buoyancy, it doesn't try to tip you over onto your back as many of the more buoyant inflatable vests will do (especially the 150N models).

While 1-2' waves are not a serious test, they were enough to show that I could easily dive under them. Indeed I could go at least a metre or so beneath them (then it was sand!!). Compared with not having the vest, I needed to keep swimming down to stay there but it wasn't too hard to do. Once I stopped swimming down, I popped up to the surface, but still was in control.

Just floating in the water, the vest seems to add about the same amount of buoyancy as wearing a full wetsuit (eg 4:3) adds, compared with wearing nothing.

Obviously, I'll need to test this again in bigger waves, but I'm pretty confident that this vest actually is pretty suitable for wave sailing under our typical conditions.

Does this mean the regulations shouldn't be changed? NO... they are still pretty silly, and are unnecessary. And I'm still convinced that one of the inflatable 100N or 150N vests could actually be a disaster in real-world wave sailing conditions in the vent that you were hurt and needed assistance: they make it very difficult to swim normally, and there's no way you could safely get through even moderate breaking surf. Some look to be really tricky to put on and use in strong wind.

On the other hand, a 50N vest could fall into the category of the OHS that probably doesn't make much difference one or the other. It should be a personal choice, like a helmet or a spare 4m of rope (both of which I use) or an impact vest. Will I wear the vest? If it still feels good in bigger waves, yes: at my age, a bit of security against something failing out the back isn't a bad idea... but it shouldn't be compulsory.

As a final comment (for now)... in my previous life, the only way we could ever get changes made to regulations was to provide counter-evidence, and that is best done by showing that the specified procedure has a higher risk to users than something else, including doing nothing. If it turns out that this vest really doesn't work in the surf, then I'm happy to document that with video etc.

I've added a few pics to show the set-up this morning... too bad the model isn't better looking... From the water pics, you can get an idea of the level of buoyancy... the bubbles show that I really was underwater!!

Great work Ian

Forward doubles, Russ? I wish...Just happy to get a decent gybe....

Meanwhile, here's a bit more info following on from Harry's comment about his weight... This is really important... It all comes down to physics and Archimedes' Principle. The general idea is that if the weight of the volume of water you displace when you are immersed in it is greater than your weight, then you will float. Buoyancy vests work by effectively increasing your volume (or decreasing your overall density to be precise) without increasing your weight.

The "N" number in the buoyancy vest specs refers to "Newtons" = the equivalent force they exert to keep you above water. To support a 1kg weight you need a force of about 10 (actually 9.8) Newtons. So a 50N vest will make you seem 5kg lighter. How can that help if you weigh 70kg (a bit less than me)? Our bodies are about 80% water which does not make any difference to how well we float in water. So we need to balance out the remaining 20% or so. For 70kg, that is about 14kg. So adding 5kg of support increases our buoyancy by about 30%, which is pretty significant, but still manageable, I think (hope...). But for someone weighing about 60kg, that difference is closer to 50%, which is a big increase in buoyancy, probably too much to swim against in a duck dive, as Harry found.

On the other hand, if you weigh 85kg, a 50N vest will provide useful support if you need it in an emergency but should not inhibit your ability to duck dive too much (though we need to test this...).These numbers are all just approximations (except for the relation between Newtons and weight!). Other variables include the thickness of your wetsuit, how much body fat you have, the weight of your other gear, such as your harness, etc. Duck diving under waves requires a bit of technique, just like any other skill.

But the take-home message here is that there is no simple, single answer to this buoyancy vest business... Which is why, despite my feeling that a 50N vest should be OK for most people in most circumstances, that will not universally be the case, and therefore, they should not be compulsory.

Phew...

Just got mine from Binks. Important to try them on as the sizing is not what u might expect. Report pending...

Not happy about it. Agree the stats demonstrate this is not what we need. Less safe overall. Just don't want to get fined by ill informed authorities. Will send in my 'Lobby' email...

As I've said all along, these things shouldn't be compulsory... Individuals making submissions / complaints about the legislation / rules is useful but a well-argued submission from an organisation that represents the punters concerned generally carries even more weight. And even better, if it co-ordinated with other representative groups, eg the kiters, SUPers, etc... I'd guess there'd be plenty of us who'd be happy to put in to help WSA do something like this.