Staying not drowned is a good survival topic. A Coast Guard rescue diver wrote, "It's water. It's pretty. All you have to remember is that every second it is trying to kill you."

The key is will a personal floatation device float you face up when you are unconcious. The good stuff is expensive. Good pfd habits will give you the reputation for being a dork. I recommend you be broke, considered a dork, and alive when the stuff hits the fan.

Really good inflatables like those made by Mustang are quite expensive. Still pricey but a bit more affordable are those top-of-the-line pfd's like Extrasport made for strenuous water sports like kayaking. My opinion is everything else is a distant, its-better-than-nothing-but-just-an-illusion-of-safety, third place.

Get to a good retailer who can fit any jacket-candidate to your physiology; this is not a one-size-fits-all purchase.

Learn to swim. Consider swiming as part of an exercise routine. Consider studying freediving or SCUBA diving with the best professional instruction you can find to motivate you to swim.

Get CPR and First Aid certified; pay attention to how to deal with drowning victims.

Get in the habit of always wearing your personal floation device when you are around or on water. Be the dork who puts on his pfd in the parking lot.

It is not just a PFD. You are going to want to learn carry in and on your pfd a number of self-rescue items. A whistle; a rescue hook to cut you free from entangling line, rope, and even wire; a PFAK; etc. This is a topic I have seen discussed at greatest length on sea kayak web forums - consider lurking on a couple and searching their archives. Be the dork with stuff tucked everywhere on their pfd.

Fishing? My favorite hobby. A combo pfd-fishing vest? They make them but I have never been confortable with the compromises. Get an incredibly good PFD; pair it with a good tackle box, or equivalent.