Canoedogs,

Nice post! I hadn't thought about a flasher on my PFD. Most of what I paddle are small, local streams surrounded by heavy woods. I'm not sure if a flasher would be useful...

As for the compressed soup, does it come in any flavor other than pea?

When I'm out in my canoe I have a pocketless PFD vest and over that I wear a multi-pocket fisherman's vest with my gear. If I feel I don't need the vest (for instance, shallow, slow moving water on streams 20' across) I sit on the PFD and just wear the fisher-vest with my emergency gear. That way if something unusual does happen I still have my gear even if I'm not wearing the vest. Plus, the vest holds a lot more stuff than any PFD I've seen.

-Blast