First Cast

Choosing a Life Jacket

Picking the right life jacket is a very important task. It is imperative that life jackets be chosen based on the proper fit for your size. Do not to confuse age with size. After speaking with Missouri Conservation Agent Ron Kelley it was apparent that many people he encounters are wearing the wrong size of jacket.

There are many types of life jackets available in today’s market. The first one we’ll discuss is the floatation suit. This is a jacket and pants combination that float. You could compare them to coveralls that float. Some fishermen choose to wear these in colder weather so that they don’t need both coveralls or a heavy coat and a life jacket over it.

The next PFD (personal floatation device) that I’ll mention is the most common type of device. This is the chest jacket. These secure around the chest. They come in many different sizes. Size is the most important factor in choosing a pfd. While many jacket sizes are based on age (may be labeled youth or young adult, or adult) you do not want to pick your life jacket by your age group. Life jackets need to be chosen by fit—regardless of what the label says. Life jackets need to be snug. You should not be able to easily pull them up over the head of a child (while the child has their arms up). You need to be thinking of what would happen if you or another person fell in the water and needed the life jacket to survive. A loose life jacket would be easily pulled off of your body if you were thrown from the boat. The buoyancy of the jacket would pull it upward, while the weight of your body would pull you down. With a loose jacket, you would slip right out.

When a young person falls in the water, a common instinct is to grab part of the jacket to pull them back up. With a loose jacket, you will end up sliding the jacket up and over their head. Chest life jackets that are made for very small children and infants have straps that can be looped around their back and between their legs and hook to the front. These straps will ensure that the jacket will not come off.

The last type of life jacket is still a chest type jacket, but it is called a rip cord jacket. These fill with air if and when you hit the water. They also have a cord that can be pulled when inflation is needed.

You should know the laws in your state. In Missouri where I live, anyone under the age of seven has to have a jacket on at all times when in a boat. There has to be a life jacket in the boat for each passenger. Some states also require that you carry a throw cushion in addition to life jackets for all. Be sure to always have a current handbook of your states boating laws. A few places you can pick these up would be boat shows and boat dealers, tackle stores or your local license bureau.