A life jacket is crucial for any water sports athlete, whether you are a beginner or an expert. If you don’t know why you should wear a life jacket. These are the reasons why you should.
prevent you from falling
It has been shown that 90% of people growing up do not wear life jackets. This means that the life jacket plays an important role in preventing people from drowning.
Since the jacket is usually vented, it gives you buoyancy that keeps you afloat in the event your boat capsizes. By staying afloat, you can easily swim to safety and even call for help.
prevents hypothermia
In addition to keeping you afloat, the jacket also helps you retain your body heat, thus preventing hypothermia that is common from cold water.
To conserve your body heat, you should adopt heat-saving positions. Some of the best poses you can assume are the HELP (pose that reduces heat escape) and Huddle positions.
To assume the HELP position, you must bring your knees to your chest with your face out of the water. You should then hold your upper arms at your sides and your lower arms against your chest or across your chest.
The crowded position is common when two or more people have been in a boating accident. To assume the position, you need to wrap your arms around two people to bring their chests together.
If there are three or more people, you should put your arms over their shoulders so that the sides of your chest are together. If there are children or elderly people, they should be brought to the center of the group.
These positions help you keep your body warm while you wait for help to arrive.
cushion your body
As mentioned, the life jacket is usually aerated; therefore, it protects your body if you hit a hard surface. In such cases, the life jacket protects you from the impact of the hard object.
Here are some of the reasons why you should wear a life jacket. You should be aware that the jacket cannot give you the above benefits if you are not wearing it; you have to use it to get the benefits. If you have children, you need to make sure they all wear the jackets.
Although life jackets give you the protection you need, life jackets should not be a substitute for close supervision. This means that even if your child is wearing a life jacket, he still needs to be sure to pay close attention to it.
