There’s nothing like the smell of clean laundry, and at Malode this week, our PFD’s are smellin fresh and new. While our kitchens at home remain dirty as always (we are river guides afterall), this week the company lifejackets were given a deep clean here at camp. Scotty, Kyler, Mike, Austin and myself devoted a morning to the most basic and essential of tasks: cleaning the PFD’s. For those of you that may not have whitewater rafted before, PFD = Personal Floatation Device, also known as a lifejacket, and they are the most essential of gear on the rivers we run.
The life jacket has come in many forms over the years, according to Wikipedia, the first acknowledged lifejackets came about in the 185o’s, and were made of either cork or wood to provide flotation. In the nineteen twenties and thirties an inflatable PFD came about, and it was popularly known as a “Mae West,” because of the improved physique that the wearer boasted (Mae West was a popular actress with a killer figure). Today if we were to follow suit we might call the PFD an Angelina Jolie, or perhaps a Pamela Anderson. As a female guide myself, I can appreciate the figure-enhancing qualities that my PFD provides — especially when it smells like clean laundry!
Kyler and Scotty holding it together
