ADULT BOATERS RESISTING CALL FOR LIFE-VEST SAFETY.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

While most parents are eager and willing to strap a life jacket onto their children before they climb into a boat, chances are, they're not following suit.

Though the U.S. Coast Guard is trying to change that by making it mandatory for everyone riding in a vessel to wear them, the agency has run into strong opposition from those who say it is inconvenient and unnecessary.

``Even though we try to educate them, they don't wear them,'' said Tim Lawson, a ranger at Lake Casitas, near Ojai. ``Sometimes they're just embarrassed to wear them in front of their friend or they're hot.''

Officials at local lakes said they'd support new federal or local legislation requiring everyone to wear a life vest.

Current law requires that boaters younger than 7 wear the jackets at all times unless they are tethered to a sailboat or in a cabin, said Megan Standard, a spokeswoman from the state Department of Boating and Waterways.

Boaters also are required to have one flotation device per person on board, whether it be a floating cushion or a life vest.

Officials at Casitas and Castaic lakes said they require that children younger than 11 wear life jackets aboard boats.

They said while it would mean more work for them to enforce a new law for everyone, the safety advantage for boaters would be worth the time and energy spent.

``Everybody thinks it's not going to happen to me,'' said Frank Gonzales, a superintendent at Castaic Lake. ``But it's just like seat belts. It's always better to be prepared in case, for safety reasons.''

Also called personal flotation devices, life jackets are considered uncomfortable and nerdy, and are often shunned even by inexperienced swimmers.

``People have limited swimming ability, but they don't have their life jacket on,'' Gonzales said. ``That's the guy that ends up in the water and that's the guy who ends up drowning.''

Some of the common mistakes people make when taking safety measures are getting a life jacket that doesn't fit and not replacing their safety equipment often enough.

Officials said floatation devices that double as seat cushions will flatten with use and lose their effectiveness as time goes by, and fire extinguishers will lose their charge if not replenished.

To help educate the public about boat safety at Castaic Lake, the Coast Guard Auxiliary performs inspections once a month of all the boats going out.

But local lake and Coast Guard officials are in the minority in wanting to change the laws. According to a Coast Guard-sponsored survey, most of the 525 respondents across the nation said they would not support a mandatory use of life jackets.

Coast Guard officials say more than 800 people died in boating incidents in 1995, the last year for which national figures were available.

Of the 629 people who drowned, 56 were not wearing life jackets.

According to the state Department of Boating and Waterways, there were 43 fatalities in 1997; only 14 of those were wearing life jackets.

Lake officials said life jackets are not a guarantee of safety, that many other factors come into play - including appropriateness of the floatation device and rescue time.

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) Keith Warloe and his son, Casey, pull up to a dock at Castaic Lake. Statewide, only children under 7 must wear life jackets.

John Lazar/Special to the Daily News