Good point. Very good point.

If you want to live long enough to put that kit to good use,perhaps the honourable gentlemen might want to consider wearing a wetsuit/drysuit on the water?

Discomfort is a small thing compared to being a Darwin Award.

no one in Canoe Country wears a wet/dry suit.sea kayakers out on Lake Superior would but canoe tripping calls for portaging between lakes..the photo is the infamous Steep Lake Carry--



you would have to remove the suit to make the carry.i've done some skin diving and i know that wet suits are made for swimming and not walking around in. and you could not paddle a canoe in either suit.while the water is cold the air temps sometimes get into the 80's and 90's.i dip my hat in the lake and flop it on to cool off on summer days.trippers who run fast water every day on trips thru the big lakes around Hudson's Bay will wear a wet suit vest but thats about it..to get the same level of safety on the carrys that a wet/dry suit would provide on the lakes you would have to carry your canoe with a pack that had all the gear you might need to set up camp along the trail in case you fell and busted something and of course you would need to have a loaded weapon--a big one-at the ready to fend off bear attacks,
rutting moose and rabid wolf.canoe tripping is a sport and not a wild scramble for life thru uncharted wilderness.having a PFD
with enought gear to get a fire and shelter at the very least
is all you need --and here's the kicker--if you go overboard and loose the canoe loaded with all your camping equipment.
the only death i have read about up there was a fisherman in
a easy to get lake with lots of campsites on it who fell out of
an empty canoe right in front of his camp with other people watching on a calm evening.he did not have a PFD.

I Just finished updating the Article after completely rebuilding my Lifejacket Survival Kit. This time I made room for a PLB and Water Purification.

Interesting article, thanks. My survival vest includes items for a more maritime environment and that includes an Icom M72 marine VHF radio with channel 16 capability. I did not plan for a wilderness environment.

Types of lifejackets and fitting

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Float Coats. I really liked them when kayaking around the Channel Islands, especially if I were doing so solo. I would wear the bottom half of a Farmer John wetsuit and load up the pockets of the float coat with flares, mirror, etc. and paddle away. On sunny days I would don a work type PFD - one that had integral pockets and load them up. I was in a situation where I was always close to shore in the event that I lost my kayak and I made sure that I had signalling gear.

If I remember correctly, my float coat was certified as a type III preserver. It did not impede my arms when paddling.

Makes sense to have a Radio in a Marine Enviorment

Yeah, rather than fire making gear (which I do not need in my over-water survival vest) I went heavy on signaling gear:
Electronic:
PLB (ACR ResQLink),
Icom M72 VHF radio,
Garmin GPS (in order to give a lat-long to any nearby ships/boats responding on Ch.16),

Visual:
2 x signal mirrors (I'll probably not be alone),
dedicated strobe,
flashlight w/ strobe mode)
chemical lights (not real bright but totally waterproof and do not need batteries).

Other than the signaling gear, there's a Spyderco Atlantic Salt (fully serrated folding knife) and a small FAK (for use once in the raft).

BTW, no food, no water -- if I'm in the water long enough to get hungry or thirsty, I'm probably already passed out or dead from hyperthermia.

Makes total sense. People who haven't spent time on the ocean have no idea how hard it is to see someone amoungst the waves.

Many years ago, while in school, I spent some time on oceanographic vessels. I still vividly remember one day when we were trying to find and recover a small floating instrument (roughly a meter in size). This was in the pre-GPS era, but we had a small radio beacon and a short mast with an orange flag on it. Because of the radio beacon we knew we were very close to it, but we still had the devil of a time finding that thing. In even a very moderate sea state it was extremely hard to spot.

Being mostly in Gulf Coast waters, inland, I have a Stern's Type IV work vest that has two pockets.

In the pockets are a pr of leather gloves, a 55gal and a 35gal trashbags.

Attached to the upper mesh is an LED flashlight and a red tracking light.

Attached to the waist straps are two radio pouches. One pouch is reserved for a VHF-FM radio and the other pouch has a Doug Ritter PSK and a mini Sabre flashlight.

Also carried, attached to the waist strap is my plastic hardhat and an 8 inch Crescent Wrench.

I carry my EDC religiously and it is a heavier EDC when I am at work or in the woods.

There are certainly more items that could be carried but this seems to be the best all around equipment list for the areas that I play in. If my boat sinks slowly enough, I would have time to grab my E&E Kit which has rations and water purification as well as maps, fire making equipment, 550 paracord, and many other useful survival items.