Health Homework (15) Learn how to blow-up (inflate) your pants …and upright a swamped canoe

Last year, I learned how fast drowning can occur, and this is why I have more respect for this topic of water safety; I nearly drowned at my favorite beach

I hadn’t thought about this (anti-drowning) procedure in many years until I saw a somewhat random video* yesterday.

*video provided at the bottom of this page

I learned how to blow-up/inflate my pants for flotation purposes when I was about eight or nine years old, around the same time I learned how to upright a swamped canoe, which can actually follow a similar procedure of filling a water-filled container with air from below.

Before I explain briefly how to perform this rather obvious* and easy procedure (*everything is obvious when you know the answer), I will start by explaining why you need to know how to do this.

Preventing drowning happens before a person is anywhere near the water by 1) being aware, 2) having skills, and 3) having a back-up plan.

You need to know how to do this because life is unpredictable and even if you hate boats, don’t want to be around boats, don’t own a boat and don’t know anybody who has a boat, you might find yourself out on the water someday to attend a wedding or a reception or just to enjoy some cocktails or have a nice spontaneous meal with your favorite person. Preventing drowning happens before a person is anywhere near the water by 1) being aware, 2) having skills, and 3) having a back-up plan.

Why you need to know how to blow-up (inflate) your pants and use them as a flotation device

Let’s say that you agree to attend a friend’s wedding and then when you arrive you find out that the wedding or the reception is going to be held on a boat in the middle of a lake or – in our case¹ - off the coast of some tropical beach.

How to inflate your pants for use as a flotation device

You can turn your pants into a flotation device by

1. First taking them off of your body/legs,

2. Tying off the ankle-ends into a knot,

3. Closing the zippers/buttons and then

4. Inflating the pants with air — first by trying to trap/catch air and then by blowing air into the pants from below the surface of the water.

Method #1: To trap/catch air, what you do is:

1. After you have closed the buttons/zippers and legs of the pants at the ankles, then what you do is

2. Try to use the large waist-opening to “capture air” by swinging the pants with both arms from behind your head down in front of you, as if you’re trying to capture an upright statue inside the pants.

Method #2: The “splash” method

• I’ve never used this method but you can see it demonstrated in the first video below.

• Basically, the idea is to splash air-water into the pants; the air will rise and fill the pants (eventually) while the water falls out.

Method #3—my preferred method: To blow air into the pants from below the surface of the water, what you do is:

1. After you have closed the buttons/zippers and legs of the pants at the ankles, then what you do is

2. Fill your lungs with air, dip your head below the surface of the water and then blow the air into the pants to fill them with air

This works quite well with pants made of sufficient density so that the wet material such as denim creates a sufficient seal to trap the air; eventually (and especially if the cloth dries) some air will escape and the pants will have to be refilled with air.

You can also inflate a long-sleeve shirt or jacket by filling it with air from your lungs; in this procedure, you are closing the neck-hole of the shirt/jacket by snugging the collar tightly around your head and neck.

How to upright a capsized canoe/kayak (while treading water, away from land)

1. DISPLACE WATER WITH AIR: Similar to method #3 above, with the canoe capsized upside-down and filled with water, fill your lungs with air while you hold on to the side of the canoe with your hands then go under the canoe and fill the canoe with the air from your lungs. The air you provide will displace the water, and eventually after several repetitions the canoe will be less filled with water and more filled with air, so that eventually it will be light enough to upright.

2. BREAK THE SEAL: Continue delivering air from your lungs (“air payload”) to the inside of the canoe until it is sufficiently filled with air that you can lift one side of the canoe and “break the seal” so that the remainder of the water leaves the canoe.

3. LIFT AND FLIP OVERHEAD: At this point and hopefully with 1) another person helping you, or 2) a canoe that is small enough for you to manage, throw (as best you can) the canoe onto its bottom.

The above procedure assumes that you’re out in the middle of the water, but not directly in a running current. Obviously if you are close to land, then you can simply pull the canoe onto land, empty the water, right the canoe and continue.

Alternate canoe-righting method: Two-person throw

Alternate canoe-righting method: One-person shake-out

Last year (Oct 10), I learned how fast drowning can occur, and this is why I have more respect for this topic of water safety; I nearly drowned at my favorite beach …in my favorite city of San Sebastian… in my favorite region of Pais Vasco, the Basque Region.

Yes, I am still planning to write a follow-up, part 2, on the theme of rip-currents, aka R.I.P. currents.

Avoiding Drowning: An Unusual Topic We (I) Should Revisit

The original video that reminded me of this theme is provided here:

1. We actually didn’t host our August wedding on a boat but we certainly looked at options and fielded quite a few quotes/bids from different companies but they were all ridiculously expensive and restrictive, wanting an excess of cash for a paucity of privilege such as number of guests and requirements to buy food from the same venue. Basically they wanted to charge $1000 per hour for a 4-hour minimum and they wanted to restrict the number of guests to not more than 10 or 12 which was a bit too restrictive for our plans. But again, we came pretty close to surprising our guests with a meal and wedding over turquoise waters.