Lifesaving Badge

[ScoutDad197 4]

My son is heading to camp where he will work on the lifesaving badge. Among other things they say to bring pants and a belt that can get wet for the badge. Probably a dumb question-but do the pants then have to have belt loops? Or can it be any pair of pants? Thanks for any insight!

[RememberSchiff 3683]

Yes.   While in water, your scout will remove pants, cinch pant legs, trap air in pants,  and close waist to hold air.

IMHO a rope belt would be preferable...worked for Jethro Bodine

 

Edited July 14, 2023 by RememberSchiff
some typo

[ScoutDad197 4]

I guess I need to make a trip to the store for something he can wear with belt loops!

[RememberSchiff 3683]

A scout is Thrifty. Borrow a pair of larger pants (easy off, larger float).

 

[ScoutDad197 4]

Hmm…good idea-dad’s would be giant-but that would save me a trip. 

[SiouxRanger 491]

I have done that-maybe in 1964 (ouch!).

My memory of the drill is clear (of yesterday's lunch-not so much.)

The purpose of the drill is to demonstrate resourcefulness by converting a pair of pants with a belt through belt loops into a Mae West type life-preserver.  It is really a remarkable thing as it works wonderfully.

We had to jump into the pool wearing our pants with a belt. Belt with holes for the pin to go through-NOT a friction buckle.

Remove our pants (swim suit underneath).

Tie the ends of the pant legs together with a square knot as close to the very cuffs as possible so as to maximize the air volume of the legs and thereby maximize buoyancy.  (There is a trick.)  This is done by first loosely tying an overhand knot in the pant legs somewhere about the middle, then tying a second overhand knot toward the very end of the pant legs (cuffs).  Then working the second overhand knot as close to the very end as possible, still ignoring the loose first overhead knot.  When satisfied with the very end overhand knot, hold it in place with your teeth.  (Now that may be problematic for a scout with a $6,000 orthodontic job-observing parents have been known to faint or call their lender-but that is my recollection.)  Then, and this is the genius of the trick, work the loose, first overhand knot up towards the one held in your teeth and draw the first knot tight to the second knot held in your teeth.  The result is an overhand knot as close to the very end of the pant legs as the thickness of the material will permit.

Then, now that a loop has been formed with the legs knotted together, place the loop over your head, with the knot/cuffs behind your head, the waist and belt being in front of you.  (The waist and belt will float aimlessly before you and shake your confidence that this will be of any help, but...)

So far, so good.

Make sure that the belt pin is engaged in a belt hole to form a loop through the belt loops, but make sure it is at its widest, that is, the buckle pin is locked into the FIRST (or second) hole of the belt. (Leather belts will suffer mightily so use a synthetic belt.  Do not use a belt with a friction buckle, but one with a PIN that goes through a hole in the belt.)

The belt being locked into its greatest diameter, then, from under the pant waist before you, grasp and draw the belt down and away from the pants waist to form a loop and insert ONE leg through that loop.  The result is to anchor the waist of the pants down low, under the surface of the water by using the belt.

Perfect.

As one draws the anchor leg down, the waist is cinched shut (trapping whatever air is in the pant legs) and as one leans back in the water and raises the anchor leg, the waist opens.

Excellent, and now for the coup de grace.

Lean back, raise the anchor leg, and with one hand, lift up the now loosened waist band and belt up to about the level of the surface, and with the other hand cupped, splash air into the waist opening and thereby into the legs.  The legs will inflate.

This could take 5 to 20 splashes, and when the pant legs are inflated, LOWER the anchor leg thereby trapping the splashed air into the pant legs.

Voila!  

A fully inflated life preserver.  And remarkably effective, however...

There is the issue of maintenance.

The inflated pant legs will be laying over your chest before you.  But they are mere cloth, porous, why don't they leak the trapped air?  They do.  So, KEEP THEM WET.  Water seals the pores.  Splash water on them from time to time.  Likely, you'll be able to see air bubbling through the cloth even when thoroughly wet.

Gee, I splashed them but still they are deflating.  Yep.  They will.

Lean back in the water, raise your anchor leg, lift the waist and belt, splash more air, and seal it off.

So, some additional pointers.

The thicker the pants material the harder it is to tie the critical knot, (denim is thick and abrasive) and the knot ultimately tied will consume more of the pant leg material to tie it, thereby reducing the available pant leg volume for air and reducing buoyancy.

On the other hand, very thin pant material will allow for easier knot tying and more air volume, but the material will leak air more rapidly, requiring more maintenance, that is refilling the air more frequently.

And, as to using "dad's pants" the legs will be longer, so the knot will be easier to tie and provide more air hold capacity thereby increasing buoyancy and that the waist will be larger, that is not likely to be a problem as the waist opening is below the water surface and the trapped air is above it.  However, a longer belt relative to the size of the scout may render the anchor leg not being able to draw down the waist opening sufficiently to prevent air from escaping, HOWEVER, the belt length can always be shortened by moving the buckle a notch or 2, or 3 to tighten the belt.

(Fun to recount a memory from so long ago.)

[ScoutDad197 4]

Wow! What a memory and what a description! We do have a belt that tightens with rings packed with dad’s (khaki type) pants so now I think I’d better find the other pin kind. Your description was amazing! Thank you!

[MikeS72 437]

4 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

IMHO a rope belt would be preferable...worked for Jethro Bodine

Just got a blank look from pretty much every current youth member in all BSA programs!  Jethro who???? 😁

[qwazse 4345]

The scenario being imitated here is that of a formal cruise or a Navy junket. So, I would suggest the scout use his own or a similarly sized friend’s pants. If they are too large the scout would find them unwieldy.

(Although “acquiring” pants from a larger fellow passenger is a possible means to an end in this scenario, it’s probably not one we would want to encourage.)

[5thGenTexan 504]

I don't recall using a belt, but its been a few days.  Seems like we tied each leg closed and just started with our pants behind our head and swiftly pulled them to our front to fill with air and just used our arms to close the top of the pants with our arms to keep the air in.

[SiouxRanger 491]

1 hour ago, ScoutDad197 said:

Wow! What a memory and what a description! We do have a belt that tightens with rings packed with dad’s (khaki type) pants so now I think I’d better find the other pin kind. Your description was amazing! Thank you!

Pin buckles work.

Ring buckles, when lubricated by water-well, they don't seem to work reliably when NOT lubricated by water.  Finding a pin buckle is the best bet.

I'm a lawyer. In the law being able to provide good descriptions is prized-everywhere else, that ability is considered a disease.

It was a memorable experience and I was very anxious.

Edited July 15, 2023 by SiouxRanger
deleted extra words

[RememberSchiff 3683]

50 minutes ago, MikeS72 said:

Just got a blank look from pretty much every current youth member in all BSA programs!  Jethro who???? 😁

Well this was an unexpected discovery...but it does further speak to relevance. 

The only time Jethro actually succeeded in anything is when a group of teenage Girl Scouts visiting the Clampetts' mansion had to jump into the cement pond when they were attacked by ants; Jethro got a "Livesaving badge" for rescuing one of the female scouts.

Source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies

[SiouxRanger 491]

19 minutes ago, 5thGenTexan said:

I don't recall using a belt, but its been a few days.  Seems like we tied each leg closed and just started with our pants behind our head and swiftly pulled them to our front to fill with air and just used our arms to close the top of the pants with our arms to keep the air in.

Well, depending on your time frame of reference and the methodology then approved, wrapping a pair of pants around one's neck, and then anchoring it with a sturdy belt around a leg, has the possibility of going tragically wrong.  Not sure I can envision all the ways, but all of those materials are unyielding, and an errant gulp of water, choking, losing focus and panicking, I can see how a scout could get into real trouble nearly instantly.

Please do check the current Life Saving Merit Badge Pamphlet for the approved method.

And as a gratuitous plug, please encourage your scouts to earn Lifesaving, even if they also earn the allowed alternative.

I saved the life of a 3 year old when I was about 15 or 16, having earned Lifesaving.  At a fishing resort in Wisconsin.  Recounted elsewhere on this forum in some detail, but I was the only one of the 8 or 9 present over the age of 3.

I was out on the pier and the children were by the shore on the boat ramp and when I turned to look at them, I just sensed something was wrong, I lept into the lake (against all the rules of jumping into unknown waters) and grasped a tiny arm and lifted the boy to the pier. Had I not acted he would have died. The water was opaque and there was no disturbance on the surface to indicate a struggling person below the surface.  Only from the strange agitation (they were laughing and looking at and pointing at the lake) of the other 3 year olds on the end of the dock looking at the lake was it apparent something was wrong.

Did earning Lifesaving merit badge save that life?  I think so, but not by any use of the various lifesaving techniques I learned by taking the merit badge.  But when learning a skill, the skills one learns as a scout to pass merit badges and attain advancement,  also involves learning subtle techniques that makes the gross skills work.  And, developing a sense of JUDGMENT.

For some reason, all of the obvious, subtle, consistent, and the conflicting discordant clues I saw, the base knowledge that "seconds count," and that jumping into unknown waters is profoundly stupid, (all of these conflicting considerations just flashed) somehow I made the right call.

I can still feel the "squish" of that boy's right forearm in the grasp of my left hand, and that the boy did not gasp for air (expecting him to do so) as I lifted him from the lake to the pier. Apparently, I had gotten to him quickly enough.

And then he and his unspeaking cohort of 3 year olds disappeared up the 40' embankment and I never saw him again.

Scouting allows youth to experience training and learn skills and hopefully develop a sense of judgment to evaluate circumstances they encounter and make good decisions.

A law professor of mine once stated, "That were common sense so "common," it would not be so valuable."

That is what I see the as the value of Scouting: the development of common sense.

 

[5thGenTexan 504]

32 minutes ago, SiouxRanger said:

Well, depending on your time frame of reference and the methodology then approved, wrapping a pair of pants around one's neck, and then anchoring it with a sturdy belt around a leg, has the possibility of going tragically wrong.  Not sure I can envision all the ways, but all of those materials are unyielding, and an errant gulp of water, choking, losing focus and panicking, I can see how a scout could get into real trouble nearly instantly.

We didnt wrap them around our neck.  We held the pants behind our head, legs sticking out the back, then brought them swiftly over our head and then closed the top end with our arms.

[SiouxRanger 491]

1 minute ago, 5thGenTexan said:

We didnt wrap them around our neck.  We held the pants behind our head, legs sticking out the back, then brought them swiftly over our head and then closed the top end with our arms.

I hope I did not mean "put over head, and TWIST."

I just meant to take the circle formed by the pant legs with waist unit and put one'e head through that hole.