It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day on Rampart Reservoir last weekend — until it wasn’t. A sharp wind picked up, bringing waves that rolled across the reservoir and knocked four paddleboarders into the crisp 50-degree water.
Two teens swam to the shore and two adults were rescued by a boat. All four were wearing life jackets, which first responders say saved them.
It’s a success story for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, whose rangers and other staff have been hammering on its life jacket messaging, emphasizing Colorado laws that require personal flotation devices, writing tickets, and loaning out more life jackets at state park reservoirs and recreations sites.
At least 15 people have died in Colorado’s reservoirs and rivers so far this year — a sharp decline from last year, when 32 people had died by the same point in the season. Of this year’s deaths, 13 were in reservoirs and two were in moving water, according to The Colorado Sun’s accounting of water deaths.
“Colorado waters are not like swimming pools — we do not have lifeguards that are watching all of the reservoirs. … If heavy rain or wind comes in, it could flip your boat,” Bridget O’Rourke, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson, told The Sun.
“Having a life jacket is the best thing you can do to keep your head above water. And so maybe just empowering people to realize that that’s kind of part of water recreation in Colorado. Maybe that is helping.”
Fatalities this season include:
A father who was sharing a paddleboard with his two children on Chatfield Reservoir when a strong wind knocked them all in the water. A canoe paddler whose boat flipped in Spinney Mountain Reservoir in mid-April. The paddler had a PFD in the boat, but wasn’t wearing one. A 51-year-old man from Minnesota who had been missing for nearly four months before he was found in Dillon Reservoir. A fisherman whose boat and life jacket were seen drifting in the 52-degree water at Skaguay Reservoir. A 35-year-old man in an inflatable packraft that flipped in a Class II-III section of whitewater on the Arkansas River below Buena Vista. Two people who died in boating accidents on reservoirs. One person who died in rafting accidents on rivers. Four people who died in swimming accidents in reservoirs. Four people at Pueblo Reservoir in a five-week span, including a 53-year-old man who tried to save his two children and friends who were struggling to swim in rough water.Of the 11 people who died while swimming or recreating on a watercraft, 10 were not wearing a personal flotation device, or PFD.
“It can be super, super hot on the surface, but you go into a reservoir and our bodies can go into a cold-water shock if we’re in 68 degree water or less,” O’Rourke said. “And so if you have a life jacket, the bottom of your body is super cold, but your head’s above water. If you don’t have a life jacket, your body starts cramping up and you get shortness of breath and then that’s how people drown because their body almost quits on them and they can’t make it to the shore.”
This year, Colorado Parks and Wildlife started its educational campaign in April, earlier than previous years, reminding people of the state’s PFD requirement, O’Rourke said. People on paddleboards, canoes, kayaks and rafts less than 16 feet long need an accessible PFD for each person aboard. Boats longer than 16 feet need a PFD for everyone, plus a throwable flotation device. Anyone on a personal watercraft, like a jet ski, and anyone being pulled behind a boat also must be wearing PFDs.
More warning signs were put up at reservoirs and state parks. Staff is also more vigilant about reminding people about the law, O’Rourke said. And more money is going toward digital ads, which debuted last summer, that remind people to bring a life jacket while enjoying Colorado’s waters.
CPW has also grown its life jacket loaner program with 48 stations in 30 of its state park reservoirs and recreation areas.
“There are 30-plus life jackets at each of those loaner stations. It’s the biggest it’s ever been,” O’Rourke said of the program.
On top of the education, CPW rangers are issuing tickets to the PFD rule-breakers. As of July 10, the agency had issued 325 tickets, which is likely to increase after citations from the busy Fourth of July weekend are counted, O’Rourke said.
Each ticket carries a $102.50 fine. They apply only to visitors to CPW parks, wildlife areas and trust lands, though. The majority of Colorado’s reservoirs are waterways and are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and local cities and counties, which can issue their tickets.
“We can’t take full credit,” O’Rourke said. “But boy, do we try throughout the summer to make sure that this number stays small.”
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