With so many styles to choose from, there's no reason not to wear one
Lifejackets for your lifestyle
Modern lifejackets cater for just about every boating situation, from kayaking or kite surfing in sheltered waters to offshore fishing or sailing on the open sea. With a wide range of styles and colours available, there's a lifejacket to suit your specific needs. So be safe and wear yours.
In this short video, Andrew Hart and Nick Duigan from popular Australian TV fishing series Hook, Line & Sinker take a look at the wide range of lifejackets available now, for all ages and activities. View the transcript
Level 100 Plus lifejackets (Type 1)
This category includes lifejackets where the nominal buoyancy level exceeds 100 Newtons. Many coastal jackets have levels of 150N or above.
Level 100 Plus lifejackets provide a high level of buoyancy and are designed to turn the wearer onto their back and keep them in a safe floating position. They usually have a collar to support the back of the head. They are highly visible, with bright colouring and retro-reflective patches. They often have additional safety features such as lights and whistles.
These lifejackets may provide buoyancy by an inflatable bladder, or by foam filled panels.
Activities
The Level 100 Plus lifejackets are not usually considered suitable for activities where the wearer may hit the water at speed. Wearers should be aware that a lifejacket will suddenly try to ‘ride up’ when the person enters the water.
For this reason, it is important for a lifejacket to be a good fit and crotch straps are strongly recommended. A badly fitted lifejacket may become dislodged by going over the wearer’s head. All straps should be secure to ensure the optimum performance of your lifejacket.
Level 50 lifejackets (Type 2)
Level 50 lifejackets provide less buoyancy than the Level 100 Plus jackets. They are not designed to turn the wearer onto their back, but they will keep the person afloat and have high visibility features.
Activities
The Level 50 lifejackets are generally designed for specialised activities such as water skiing and operating personal watercraft, where there is a high probability that the wearer may impact with the water at speed.
They also allow for a greater degree of activity and flexibility than foam-filled Level 100 Plus jackets and so are used in kayaking and canoeing.
Level 50S lifejackets (Type 3)
These have similar characteristics to the Level 50 Lifejackets, except they do not have the high visibility features. They are often black or dark in colour.
Activities
The Level 50S lifejackets are generally only suitable if assistance is close at hand and there is unlikely to be a need to search for the wearer.