No Life Jacket? Your Pants Can Save You!

Get stuck out in the open water with no floatation and your odds of survival decrease dramatically with every minute that passes by. Treading water is difficult, and fatigue can set in pretty quickly, especially when you add waves and strong water currents into the mix. Everybody knows how a life jacket can save your life in this situation, but did you know your pants can come to the rescue too?

If you find yourself in open water without a life jacket, you can actually use the pants you have on to make one. I learned this trick when I was in Navy ROTC a decade or so ago and I'll never forget how well it worked for me. I was surprised at how many people have never heard of this strategy, so I wanted to do my part to share it with as many people as possible.

First of all, you have to have pants on for this to work. I know that the chances of you wearing pants while you are out on the water are low, but it never hurts to have a piece of knowledge that may save your life someday. So, imagine you have just been thrown into the water and you're all alone without a life jacket. The first thing you need to do is remove your pants. This is harder than it sounds. The pants will want to stick to you and catch on your legs as you try to pull them off. If your legs get tangled in your own pants in the process, you aren't going to be able to swim and you'll sink below the surface for a bit. The best thing to do is just take a deep breath and begin pulling your pants off with the anticipation that you'll be going under for a few seconds while you work your legs free. Once the pants are off, make sure you hold on to them, because wet pants can sink!

The next thing you need to do is tie the ankles of the pants together. Just cross them just like you do when you begin to tie your shoes, but cross them twice instead of once so they stay together. The tighter this knot is the better, because the legs need to stay tied together for this to work.

Next, grab the waist of the pants and swing the pants out of the water to try to fill the legs of the pants with air in the same fashion as you would a brand new trash bag. End this motion by quickly lowering the waist of the pants below the surface of the water so that the air that you have just trapped in the pant legs cannot escape out of the waist of the pants.

Now, with the waist of the pants held in your hands and below the surface at all times, slip your head between the two pant legs. Viola! You have just created a life jacket with your pants. In order to keep your new life jacket inflated, however, you need to splash water on it every 30 seconds or so to keep them wet. The water will stick between the fibers of the fabric, forming an air-tight seal that will allow the pants to stay inflated. Inevitably, air will escape the inflated pants. To combat this, simply use one hand to push air bubbles from the surface into the waist opening of the pants. Make sure you keep one hand one the waist at all times and keep the waist below the surface at all times.

If you do everything I just explained, it is possible to use a pair of pants as a life jacket in the event that you are stuck in open water with nothing else to keep you afloat. I must point out, though, that this is by no means a safe substitute to a real life jacket that is approved for human floatation. Never go into the water or on a boat without a life jacket.