Important Tips to Help You Swim Safely
In this article, I will show you helpful tips for how to swim with a life jacket.
If you are swimming in the ocean, you sure need a life jacket on your back. Sure, it is inconvenient but it will be worth it.
Swimming in the open water requires more effort and energy. The waves and the currents are stronger. Thus, you can be exhausted faster to the point where you just want to tread water.
But in our article on how to tread water, we said that this activity burns calories, so you will be spending energy.
If you are too tired, it can be hard to stay afloat. This is why you need a life jacket for swimming. It will keep you afloat until you are rested enough to start swimming again.
If you are a beginner swimmer, wearing a life vest for adults can boost your confidence level. This will make it easy to learn how to swim. With your ability to float on water, you can swim longer and harder.
So, really, can you swim with a life jacket? The answer is a resounding yes.
The best life vest for swimming is the Gogokids swim vest float jacket for adults that you can buy on Amazon.com.
Can you swim with a life vest?
This is a popular question among many people. According to the National Park Service, you should wear a life vest every time you are in the water or close to the water.
However, when you are swimming in the swimming pool, only wear a life jacket if you do not know how to swim or are learning.
For kids, they should wear a life jacket any time they are in the water.
Even if you are a great swimmer, it is best to know your limits. Many people think that they cannot drown because they are great swimmers. You can drown! Anyone can drown.
If you are incapacitated, if you are under the influence, or if you fall into the water and get hurt, you could drown, even if you are the best swimmer.
Wear a personal flotation device on your person any time you are on a boat. Wear one too when you are swimming in the open water, away from the beach.
However, when swimming, as long as you are keeping to your limits, it is not important to always wear one, especially when you are swimming in the designated areas.
If you are swimming outside of the areas designated for bathing or swimming, wear a PFD.
Practical tips
Here, we shall enumerate the proper procedure of swimming while wearing a life jacket.
Now that you need a life jacket to swim in the ocean, you need to know how to swim in one. Swimming strokes are about kicking, pulling, and moving your arms.
The bulkiness of the PFD might hamper how well you execute your swimming strokes.
In the first few days, it will feel a bit awkward. However, it should get easier with time. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when you are swimming with a life jacket on.
1. Choose the right one
If you have to choose a PFD, get the best one. By this, we mean getting a life jacket that is approved by the United States Coast Guard.
That way, you can use it for other purposes, such as kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding, in the areas outside the swimming, bathing, and surfing zones.
Check the label of your new jacket to see whether the USCG approves it. There are a few types of life jackets that you can use for swimming. They are:
Inflatable life jackets: These are for good swimmers, and they come in wearable designs. They are comfortable and light in weight. Mostly, these PFDs are available in adult sizes only.
Hybrid life jackets: These ones come with foam material and can be inflated. They are available in kid and adult sizes, and even people who cannot swim can wear them.
Inherently buoyant PFD: These types of jackets come in all sizes. They are also available in wearable and throwable designs. Experts, beginners, and non-swimmers can use these jackets for swimming and for water sports.
2. Ensure the PFD is in good shape
It is one thing to have the right PFD for swimming. It is another way to ensure it is in good shape. If you have been using yours for a long time, it might have been punctured.
It might be torn, too. One of the Coast Guard rules regarding life jackets is that they must be in good condition.
Check whether the buckles are in good shape. These devices come with plastic buckles to keep them as lightweight as possible and to prevent corrosion.
A PFD is only good if it is in wearable shape. Otherwise, a person who wears a faulty life jacket is no different from one who doesn’t wear one.
Check the stitching on the vest. Make sure nothing is ripped.
If you need to buy a high-quality, USCG-approved life vest, you can buy the O’Neill Men’s Superlite USCG Life Vest on Amazon.com.
3. Make sure it fits just right
Unlike what many people think, life vests and jackets for swimming and other water sports are not bulky at all.
They are designed to be lightweight and thin so that they can allow full movement of your body when you are in the water.
However, the PFD for swimming will feel bulkier if it does not fit. Most people seem to err on the side of bigger.
If you do that, this wearable PFD will impede your effort to make those swimming strokes in the water.
Likewise, the PFD should not be too small, because then it will impede the movement of your limbs. While it is impossible for it to fit like a wetsuit or swim wear, it should feel comfortable and okay.
4. Practice how to swim with it
If you are feeling a bit uncomfortable in the jacket, that is okay. However, you can make it easy on yourself by doing a few laps in the pool while wearing it.
The idea is to get used to movement in the water with the jacket on. If you are preparing for an open water swimming competition, wear your personal flotation device.
It will help boost your confidence in the water. You can learn how to swim in open water faster since you do not have any fears about drowning.
When the day of the swimming competition comes, you will not wear a life jacket. However, you will be so used to the idea of open water that it won’t bother you.
Don’t worry about your safety, though, because such competitions are always supervised and rescue teams are always close.
5. How to float easily
The main reason for wearing a life jacket while swimming is to keep your head and nose out of the water.
Thus, walk into the water until you are shoulder-deep. Note how well the jacket keeps you afloat in that position.
Lean your head backward towards the water. Lift your legs slightly, and soon you should float on your back. You have to float on the water with your face out of the water.
To swim with a life jacket on, you will need to float on your stomach. To do this, just stand in the water, shoulder-deep, and then lean your face towards the water.
Gently lift your legs up, and let the buoyancy of the water lift you. The PFD should help to keep your face out of the water.
6. Can you swim comfortably? Adjust the fit, if need be
If you need to adjust the fit of your PFD, the water will tell you. The first time I wore a life jacket while swimming, the water made it ride up my back.
It almost came off my neck! I had buckled the straps too loosely, which is why the water made it ride up my back.
This is a simple problem. I just adjusted the straps making them tighter, and I was good to go.
If you experience the same thing, just tighten the straps some more. That should take care of that.
Don’t overdo it, because if you make it too tight, it will prevent proper arm movement.
7. Get to the actual swimming already
Once you are done with the fitting and floating shenanigans, it is time to get down to the actual swimming!
Use the legs first. To start swimming, kick your legs up and down, but keep the pace slow.
You will realize that the more you kick, the faster you move in the water. All this time, you have not used your arms. You are just kicking your legs steadily.
Use the arms. To start using the arms, extend them out and ahead of you, and then fan them steadily on your sides.
Do not bring the arms too close to your body, lest the tough material of the life jacket cause scratches. Keep moving the arms to give your legs rest, and when the arms are tired, kick the legs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Using a life jacket for swimming is about the safest thing that you can ever do in the ocean or in the lake.
If you still need more clarification about wearing a PFD for swimming, here are a few frequently asked questions and their answers:
Can you drown if you are wearing a PFD?
It is not possible to drown when wearing a life jacket because they are designed to keep your mouth and nose out of the water.
Type 2 life jackets are designed to turn your face upwards, so they are the safest for preventing drowning in the pool.
One of the characteristics of Type 3 life jackets is that they do not turn you upward. Thus, if you fall head first into the water, you can still inhale a lot of it into your lungs and drown in the sea.
However, make sure you zip it up completely and tighten the straps so that it does not slip off your body.
Do you need to know how to swim with a PFD?
It is best to know how to swim if you want to engage in water sports such as snorkeling, surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, diving, and so on.
Wearing a life jacket correctly can save you from drowning, but knowing how to swim can help you swim to the shore or to a safer place.
Is it harder to swim with a PFD?
It is, but the margin of hardness is very small, negligible! Today, PFD manufacturers make lightweight life jackets for swimming and other water sports.
They are made of a thinner nylon material to stay as close as possible to your body. Expert swimmers do not feel much difference between swimming with a PFD and without one.
Will a PFD save you if you can’t swim?
If you cannot swim, the life jacket will keep you alive by keeping your face out of the water.
You can inhale properly until help arrives. If you fall off a boat or kayak, you will float, and that is the most vital thing.
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Can you swim in the pool with a UTI
Swimming in the ocean with a herpes infection?
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Conclusion
Can you swim with a life jacket? It is actually recommended that you wear a life jacket when swimming in rivers, lakes, and the ocean.
If you are going sailing, wear a PFD when you are on deck. You can stay without it when you are in the cabin.
Children under 13 years of age should have their PFD on all the time when they are near water.
Also, for kids, get them a life vest for their age. Do not make them wear adult ones since they will not fit appropriately.
Finally, but equally important, follow the proper procedure of swimming with a life jacket as we have outlined here, for your safety.