After some recent outings on rough or rapidly moving water, I have been thinking about those comfortable and convenient inflatable life jackets. It seems that are at least two types, namely, those that require the wearer to activate inflation and those that detect the water and self-inflate. If you were suddenly ejected from your boat, would you have the presence of mind to activate the inflator? How about if you had hit your head while being ejected from your boat and were unconscious? It is easy to give ourselves a false sense of security for the sake of convenience. For your sake I hope that you will consider either wearing a “good old fashioned” life jacket that supports you in the water weather you activate it or not, or an inflatable jacket that automatically inflates. I’ve seen recent articles that document the preventive maintenance required to assure that the automatic vests maintain their functionality. We all need to think about these issues and be more conscientious about wearing a life jacket that will actually save our lives.
