Re: How often do you wear your life vest?
Good Topic!
I must say that I rarely use mine, I've only had it on a few times in pretty dicey conditions. The problem is that it's about impossible to fish with a huge life vest wrapped around your neck.
I'd love to find one that could be worn all the time which is either a part of a jacket or one that is unobstructive to both movement and view.
Those common foam filled orange life vests will all but block your view when driving let alone make it just about impossible to fish and handle the most basic functions on a boat.
I've tried several types, most ride up over my head, and none which I've tried has actually floated me in a swimming pool test. I've tried vests, and those jacket types and neither will keep me from sinking, so I don't put much value on them I was told by one manufacturer that I need a big man's life preserver, not the common vest, which is meant mainly to keep you afloat and face up if unconscious in the water. I tried and the result was me slipping right out of the vest regardless how tight I tried to attach it. The best result was a Stearn's life jacket style with two leg straps, but even that didn't keep me on the surface and rode up far enough to let my head go beneath the water. I've not tried the inflatable vests, I suppose they would work the best but again, they have to stay on to be useful. At nearly 300lbs and 6' 3" tall, most of the jacket style vests, even those in 3 and 4x size, look like I'm wearing one meant for a little kid. I'm not particually fat, just big. I wear a 2X jacket on land and have a 40" waist, there are far larger men out there than me. I wonder how many others have actually tried their life vests to see what to expect if the need arose.
In most cases its not that the vest won't float me, it's that it won't stay on.
Several all but ripped my face off as I slid out of them, several left me hanging with the straps under my arms and my head beneath the water. This was in a swimming pool, not in rough seas.
The best one I found was actually an old military type life vest which straps on with cotton straps which when wet seamed to not become 'slippery' and slide upward. Even at that, I still hung from the vest by my neck with the straps unable to stay wrapped around me. What happens is that the vest will slide up to the point where the straps hit my arms, at this point however, my head is far below the water and if unconscious, I would assume that my arms would just straighten out over my head and let the jacket slide up till the belly strap either passed over my head or caught my chin. Most could float my weight if I used them as a float cushion and secured them to my chest but they still only kept me within reach of the occasional breath of air.
Are there any suggestions in for a more functional life vest? I can't be the only one who doesn't have the natural ability to float? (I once won a bet that I couldn't walk across the bottom of a huge swimming pool using nothing but a snorkel tube, I won that bet).
I am one of those people that can only swim far enough to save myself, and have no ability to stay put in the water, I can only stay on top if I keep moving. The incentive to get out of the water is the only thing that keep me moving and on top. I always figured that if I people were meant to swim, we wouldn't need boats. If I were in a situation where my boat was going down, I wouldn't rely on my life vest, I'd be more apt to hold on to either my self inflating raft or my ice chest till I got out of the water. (Both of my boats have Co2 inflating life rafts, which can be inflated by simply pulling a handle. Whether in it or clinging to it, a 6' raft won't sink even with me clinging to it, nor will a 150 qt marine ice chest.
