I thought their purpose was (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)! (Green Sterns under the conveniently placed, spare paddle.) Yeah, I'm not that bad anymore. I at least keep it handy and not bungied down.  

I have always worn my seat belt. In MY car, seat belts are mandatory for everyone. It keeps me in place on the corners and I feel naked and vulnerable w/o it.

In a canoe however, it's a personal preference. The PFD goes on only when waves warrant it. If I'm wearing it I probably also have a painter tied to myself so the canoe can't blow away from me.

I might float these days but when I bought mine I sank like a rock and I got a bright yellow one to make it easy to spot my body - saving retrieval costs. It's comfy but does interfere with other things I may have in my shirt pockets plus, to me, it's a "feel good" false sense of security. It does have my ditch kit in it though so....

You like wearing yours - good for you! If not, that's fine too. Like I'd notice or care. There was one day when I overheard the very young son of a father and son team say: "He's not wearing his...." I put down the paddle and put it on. I then waved hello as in thanks for the reminder. I get the example thing but I took it off again when the kid was out of sight.

If I had to choose one or the other, I feel a lot "safer" with the painter tied to me than the with PFD - on, buckled, zipped and cinched tight. Within easy reach works for both most of the time.

"Expect the unexpected"

I hardly ever used to wear mine. I thought it was too uncomfortable and I'm a pretty good swimmer and quite capable in a canoe. But then when I started taking occasional groups of kids, scouts and church, I figured I should also be wearing one since I was making the kids wear one. I just didn't want to be a hypocrate. I eventually but a slightly better mesh top vest and got used to it. Now it feels strange without it and I have a hard time not wearing it.

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I don't always wear a PFD in my fishing boat, even though I should. I have one within reach, however, and I use another square foam float to sit on. Not that either would do me any good if I were by myself, and I happened to fall into the river or the notoriously choppy lake that I usually fish on.

When I'm in my canoe, however, I always have a PFD on and strapped up properly. I had my first canoe mishap when I was very young, and have had several since, though none were serious and none were recent. However, I've come to respect how little it takes to tip a canoe, especially a tandem, where you don't have control of the other person's body and reactions (another good reason for a solo). A few of those mishaps could have been worse than they turned out, had nobody been wearing PFD's.

Another point of concern is the flotation factor of my little Royalex canoe. When it fills with water, and I don't get out of it, it sinks like a rock. Filled  with gear on a cold northern lake, alone and miles from any sort of help, that could be a disaster. I grew up paddling my old man's freight-tanker Old Town, which would still float even when full of water and several giggling kids, so having my Royalex boat sink underneth me was a sobering experience. Especially since I conducted the test after my solo trip last spring, during which I rode her, overloaded, through some choppy spring-time water that in retrospect, I probably should have waited out and avoided.

I'm upgrading my tiny little Royalex Sandpiper this spring, so hopefully the slightly larger boat will have better flotation should the unthinkable happen. I haven't driven a kevlar, so I can't speak for those, but I encourage everyone to bring their canoe to the beach one day this summer, and get used to how it reacts to being rocked, tipped, and swamped. You might be surprised at the results.

It was mentioned earlier in this thread that being alone doesn't leave a person with a very big margin for error, and I couldn't agree more. Being solo anywhere changes all the rules. Even if one wears a PFD religiously, is always careful and vigilant on the trail, and carries out all tasks in camp with that certain level of perfection gained through experience, suffice to say, sh** still happens. Anything one can do to lower the level of risk, or to better prepare for the unexpected, is time and effort well spent.

Two friends of mine, who accidentally tipped their canoe while evening fishing in the BW in late fall, a few miles away and on a different lake from their camp, will tell you that wearing a PFD and having a ditch-kit on your person are two of the best things you can do "just in case." They didn't have either, and they owe their lives to their third travel partner, who happened to be an EMT. The EMT "had a feeling" that they had gone in the water as the darkness fell and they hadn't returned to camp, and through training, intuition, and luck, he was able to find them - shivering violently and trying to paddle back to camp with their hands - and do all the right things to get them warm and dry.

These guys were all experienced in wilderness. One of them taught at several ELC's, is currently a commercial pilot, and has summited several peaks in North America and greater Asia. The other is an avid climber, hunter, and paddler.

The moral of the story? Confidence is no excuse for complacency.