[joshontheweb]

When I was a boy scout we were taught to take off our pants, tie knots in them and fill them with air either by blowing or by throwing them over and down on the water. You can create a makshift life jacket this way. Wet fabric can hold air. It isn't perfect, you have to keep refilling air as it leaks but it does work. I was in a swimming pool and not high seas so not sure how effective it would be in that situation. Definitely better than just treading water though.

[zimbu668]

I was doing laps in college one time when an ROTC class was practicing this. At the same time they were learning how to use their M16s(or something in the family) while swimming.

[WillNotDownvote]

This was also part of the Survival Swimming course that used to be mandatory at Georgia Tech back in the olden days. At some point in the class, we had to jump off the high dive, use our pants as described, and remain floating in the deep end of the pool for some length of time (30 minutes I think?)

Fun class, but I shouldn't have taken it in a poorly insulated gym at 8 am Winter Quarter. Brrr.