Marine Shares Lifesaving Trick To Prevent Drowning Using Only A Pair Of Pants

Updated September 8, 2021

Although swimming is certainly a useful skill, the amount of good that it can do for you depends a lot on how much water you're surrounded by.

Because while panic and a lack of swimming skills are surefire ways to make a sudden drop into water perilous, it's easy to underestimate just how quickly exhaustion can set in and how badly it can affect your attempts to save yourself.

For this reason, one man has taken to TikTok to show us a trick that could potentially save our lives.

The tip we're about to see comes from TikTok user @dutchintheusa, who says in his bio that he's a Royal Marine.

TikTok | @dutchintheusa

And in his brief video, he aimed to show us how to create a flotation device for when we find ourselves in open water. And all we need to build it is a pair of pants.

The obvious first step is to take the pants off and once we do that, we're supposed to tie the legs together.

TikTok | @dutchintheusa

After this is done, he advised us to either button or zip them up, depending on the design we're working with.

With those preliminary steps out of the way, @dutchintheusa then held the open end of the pants up and said, "This is the hardest part."

TikTok | @dutchintheusa

To prepare for this step, he advised grabbing this end from either side as shown.

Then, as he put it, "You're going to slam it down and get as much air in there as possible."

TikTok | @dutchintheusa

The idea is to do this quickly and forcefully enough that the pants form an air pocket to keep them afloat rather than just being weighed down by water.

And once there's enough of an air pocket within the pants, all that remains is to put our heads through the space between the tied up legs.

TikTok | @dutchintheusa

It almost looks comfortable when he does it, but the subtle shivers in his video are a good reminder that the water you find yourself doing this in is unlikely to be pleasant.