For all the newbies from a newbie.

OK, so here is the deal. This sport is getting popular. High gas prices and higher food prices are getting more and more people interested in less expensive methods of getting to the fish. I know first hand since my whaler has been used far less these last two summers. I know I am not the only guy out there who went from glass to plastic.

This being said, with an increase in people on kayaks, there are bound to be more and more accidents and so on. We all know this is not the safest way to fish. For safety, party boats have the statistical upper hand. None the less, I do get irked when I hear of people doing bone-head stuff because they are not prepared.

A kayak is a water-sport instrument, not unlike a pair of waterskis or surfboard or anything else. When using one, you always assume you are going into the water.

As a matter of fact, your boat is probably your least important piece of safety equipment out there. More important area:

1. Well fitting cold-water rated Wetsuit. 
2. Paddling PFD 
3. Whistle/horn and Radio
4. Flare-gun

Next, the first trip to the salt should be a practice run with the plan of practicing things like:

1. Launch
2. Landing
3. falling over and self rescue.
4. Swimming alongside the boat.

This is just a brief recap, Agarcia's write up is a lot better for reference purposes.

This stuff has been said here before plenty of times, but the 7/18 HMB incident just showed that safety is often an after-thought to folks when the fishing bug hits and must be hammered in. I read the prior posts of the person to whom this happened and I guarantee that he is not the only one with the same profile, had a big boat, wants to fish, downsizes to a kayak as a viable option, a trip or two to a small pond to try out the boat, then off to the salt.

The way I see it, it won't take many incidents until the busybodies start to notice and start legislating a whole bunch of safety measures. I remember when I could legally drive a boat and enjoy a beer. Not anymore, because some accident caught the attention of some legislator.
 

This stuff has been said here before plenty of times, but the 7/18 HMB incident just showed that safety is often an after-thought to folks when the fishing bug hits and must be hammered in. I read the prior posts of the person to whom this happened and I guarantee that he is not the only one with the same profile, had a big boat, wants to fish, downsizes to a kayak as a viable option, a trip or two to a small pond to try out the boat, then off to the salt.

Did I miss something?

Scratch that, found it.

This is just a brief recap, Agarcia's write up is a lot better for reference purposes.

Just a point of clarification.....

Saltydog Jim was good enough to filter through many existing posts and compile the wealth of information into one article.

All I did was post and sticky it for Jim.  The info is all over the site, he's the one who compiled and put it in one place for us.