Why Don’t Rowers Wear PFDs?

It seems that nothing is more controversial about rowing safety than lifejackets, or PFDs. Rowers in coastal racing shells, drop-in rowing units, and open water boats don’t have any problem putting them on and rowing in them, but many rowers in “traditional” shells insist they can’t be worn. Why?  What’s the controversy?  Here are the central facts and the misconceptions that surround them. (Our page on PFDs for Young Rowers makes the case for wearing them under dangerous conditions and Rowing PFDs surveys the available options.)

Many rowers argue that:

  1. The sport of rowing has been well-established for more than a century;
  2. There have been relatively few reported deaths;
  3. The law doesn’t require rowers to wear PFDs.

Those statements are all basically true, and based on them it’s argued that PFDs are simply unnecessary and shouldn’t be worn. It’s also argued that they’re too bulky, hot, restrictive, chafe; have straps and buckles; can create a false sense of safety; and they interfere with the development of muscle memory and prevent the development of a perfect stroke. Those statements are much less true and should be weighed against the following facts.

  1. Cold water is extremely dangerous at all times;
  2. Sudden immersion can cause cold shock and lead to drowning in less than a minute;
  3. In cold water, most people lose the ability to hold onto an overturned shell, put on a life-jacket, or swim within about fifteen minutes.
  4. Accidents happen, often as the result of poor judgements, and sometimes for reasons beyond the control of anyone who is rowing.

These facts are also fundamentally true. Whether or not they outweigh the arguments above is largely a matter of personal judgment.

Here’s a brief summary of those facts and the myths and misconceptions that cloud the discussion.

  1. The sport of rowing has been well-established for more than a century. This is certainly true. Rowing in racing shells has been recognized as a sport for well over a hundred years and was begun at a time when neither modern medicine nor the concept of safety standards existed (although there were primitive lifejackets sometimes used by sailors at sea.)
  2. There have been relatively few reported deaths. This is also true, but less clear. No reliable records exist of rowing deaths and in the United States no records are kept of rowing accidents or rowing deaths. For this reason it is impossible to determine the risk of rowing relative to other sports, much less the risk of rowing under dangerous conditions.
  3. The law doesn’t require rowers to wear PFDs. This is largely true, but subject to its own controversy. In 1993 the US Coast Guard issued a federal regulation that exempted racing shells from federal PFD requirements AND pre-empted state authorities on federal waters.
  4. PFDs are too bulky, hot, restrictive, chafe. Of course, many PFDs are bulky or ill-suited to rowing — especially the inexpensive horseshoe collar types that are intended only for emergency wear — but there are dozens or hundreds of modern PFDs suitable for rowing.
  5. PFDs can be dangerous because of straps and buckles. Just as many PFDs are suitable for rowing, many others are not. PFDs designed for water skiing, wake-boarding, or other water sports, and PFDs with straps and buckles that can snag, are inappropriate for rowing.
  6. PFDs interfere with the development of muscle memory and prevent the development of a perfect stroke. This is untrue. Rowing requires not only the acquired efficiency of muscle memory, but the ability to make slight adjustments with each stroke to keep course, increase power, compensate for wind and water. Inflatable PFDs, hybrid PFDs, and many foam PFDs do not interfere with the development of perfect rowing strokes.
  7. Cold water is extremely dangerous. This is true, but often misunderstood. There are two distinct dangers from cold water. Prolonged immersion can lead to death by hypothermia. Sudden immersion — such as occurs when a rower is caught by an ejector crab or a shell capsizes — can lead to death in a matter of minutes. Drowning from cold shock can occur in a minute or two.
  8. In cold water, most people lose the ability to hold onto an overturned shell, put on a life-jacket, or swim within about fifteen minutes. This effect of cold shock is well documented in the USRowing Safety Video and the Cold-Water Boot Camp videos produced by Dr Gordon Giesbrecht at the University of Manitoba. The ability to hold onto an overturned shell or put on life jackets can be lost in less than ten minutes.
  9. Accidents happen, often as the result of poor judgements, and sometimes for reasons beyond the control of anyone who is rowing. The Rowing Accidents page on this site sketches the causes of many accidents over which rowers had little or no control, such as sudden changes in the weather or being hit by motor boats.

For those who believe PFDs are too bulky, too restrictive, and too hot for rowing, this video may be instructive. It’s one of the great race performances of the past fifty years and it’s done in a PFD that has no straps, no buckles, and is no impediment to great racing. Jon Lugbill, 1989. Spoiler alert: he’s, not rowing a racing shell, but paddling a C-1, which is a whitewater canoe. The lesson from this clip is that he’s racing in a PFD, it doesn’t chafe, it doesn’t restrict his motion, it doesn’t cause him to overheat in a race as physically demanding as a rowing race. 

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