Indeed. I was in a thread on Reddit about exactly this subject, and it was truly bizarre how adamant a lot of people were about how you should not having a life jacket. They were pointing out all these things - you could get trapped inside your house, it doesn’t save you from being hit by debris, it doesn’t protect you against diseases that are in the water.
Yeah, those are all bad things. Don’t jump into floodwaters for fun! Stay out of the flood water if you can at all possibly manage it. But if I’m in a place where I might end up falling into floodwaters anyway, it’s far far better to have a life vest on than to not have it on.
As someone who works on ships, it’s truly baffling how many “but what if…!? Life jacket bad!” you see in the intertubes.
I have one of these auto-inflaters and I always wear it on deck. Yes, the color will make me more visible to sharks and a myriad of other theoretical hazards, but I still would prefer not to drown.
One important note: if you for some reason need to wear BOTH an inflatable life jacket and a climbing harness (which I sometimes need to do), make sure to put on the climbing harness first. The harness will not give way to an inflating life jacket, but your chest and ability to breathe will.
Vaccine people. Same thing. They will happily start a case and put it against something with 12 more digits of probability behind it and feel like they have specialized knowledge. Dunning kreuger as well.
Even if that turned out to be the case (very unlikely) you can always take your life jacket off if at some point you find it’s causing a problem. Just a squeeze on each clip and it’s off
Indeed. I was in a thread on Reddit about exactly this subject, and it was truly bizarre how adamant a lot of people were about how you should not having a life jacket. They were pointing out all these things - you could get trapped inside your house, it doesn’t save you from being hit by debris, it doesn’t protect you against diseases that are in the water.
Yeah, those are all bad things. Don’t jump into floodwaters for fun! Stay out of the flood water if you can at all possibly manage it. But if I’m in a place where I might end up falling into floodwaters anyway, it’s far far better to have a life vest on than to not have it on.
As someone who works on ships, it’s truly baffling how many “but what if…!? Life jacket bad!” you see in the intertubes.
I have one of these auto-inflaters and I always wear it on deck. Yes, the color will make me more visible to sharks and a myriad of other theoretical hazards, but I still would prefer not to drown.
One important note: if you for some reason need to wear BOTH an inflatable life jacket and a climbing harness (which I sometimes need to do), make sure to put on the climbing harness first. The harness will not give way to an inflating life jacket, but your chest and ability to breathe will.
Life jackets truly are the seat belts of the sea. “My uncle only survived the blaze from the crash because he was ejected from the car!”
Vaccine people. Same thing. They will happily start a case and put it against something with 12 more digits of probability behind it and feel like they have specialized knowledge. Dunning kreuger as well.
Even if that turned out to be the case (very unlikely) you can always take your life jacket off if at some point you find it’s causing a problem. Just a squeeze on each clip and it’s off