Hey, folks.
Glenn May here with bassresource.com, and
today I'm off the water, and I wanna talk
to you about something that's been on my mind
for a while now, and that's water safety.
And I'm not talking just, you know, wearing
your life vest.
We all know to wear it.
I'm not gonna preach about that.
In the recent years, we've had some big tragedies
in the bass fishing community where we've
had some serious injuries and even loss of
life.
And all these people were wearing life vests.
They were following all the safety procedures,
but they had something or another happen on
the boat, either they lost power for some
reason, or they got caught in some rough weather.
But the problem is, is that a 911 one call
was never made.
Nobody got a phone call.
And everybody had cell phones, so you can't
speculate as to what happened.
Maybe their batteries died.
Maybe they were in an area that didn't have
cell phone coverage, or, you know, if they
got thrown overboard, perhaps their cell phone
got wet and wouldn't work anymore.
But the lesson learned here is that you can't
rely on your cell phone for an emergency when
you're out on the water.
It doesn't always work, especially coverage
can be really scattered and you might not
have any coverage.
So it got me thinking like, how can you ensure
that you have better chances of survival in
an emergency situation if you don't have a
cell phone?
And I started researching it and I spent a
lot of time looking into the different options
and researching a lot of different products
to come up with what I'm doing to ensure that
I have better chances of survival.
So I saved all that for you guys, and I just
wanna walk you through what I'm doing.
So, here's my life vest.
And as you can see, I got several things attached
to it.
So I'm gonna walk you through this stuff.
Probably the one that's most interesting to
you is this one right here.
So let's just get right down to it.
This here is what's known as a personal locator
beacon, okay?
It's not a cell phone.
This is not a cell phone.
This sends a distress signal via satellite
to all the emergency authorities, land, water,
sea, lake, land, what have you, air, whole
nine yards, everybody who does any rescues,
it sends a distress signal to them and lets
them know your exact GPS location.
Now, this, I think, would have been the number
one thing that would have helped in some of
these situations.
This is the thing that if you've ever watched
like Deadliest Catch and whatnot, the guys
that are out there in deep sea, in the Arctic
ocean, this is the type of thing that they're
wearing so they can be located quickly and
hopefully get their lives saved.
It's not a toy.
Now, because it sends off an emergency signal,
the way that it works is not water-activated.
You don't want any false alarms.
So let me show you this up close, what this
does.
You can see, this is by ACR, this little button
right here, this is a cover.
You have to activate it by pressing and holding
the button.
So, what you need to do is, there's an antenna
here that you release.
Out comes the antenna.
And then when you slide this up, it uncovers
that button, and then you press that button
and you hold it for two seconds and it activates
it, and in come the Calvary.
You can get a response maybe as quickly as
in 15 minutes, and that may be the difference
between life and death.
Now, these, they last about five years battery
life.
It's just AA batteries, or AAA batteries.
Yeah.
They only use these AAA batteries, so it doesn't
like use a lot of batteries.
And the thing is, is when you replace them,
you have to take it to a service place to
have them fix it for you.
So that's a little bit of an extra cost.
In addition, you know, these aren't cheap.
This one is a digital one.
It's got a digital readout on it, and this
one costs about 350 bucks at the time of this
filming.
There's one that doesn't have the LED readout,
and it's 50 bucks or less.
I like the LED because there's a test button
down here and the readout will let you know
the condition of this unit and make sure that
it's working properly.
It's just added, you know, peace of mind.
Three hundred and fifty bucks may sound really
expensive, but if you look at it from the
five-year life span of the battery, that's
about, you know...Or if it's $300, it's like
60 to 70 bucks a year, 60 to 70 bucks a year.
Now, if you could get auto insurance for that
amount, I trust you would be all over it,
right?
You would buy it in a heartbeat.
And this here is gonna save your life.
And you got to think about it a little bit
more than just your life, but it's about your
friends, your family, your kids.
You have a responsibility to them and a device
like this can be the difference between them
visiting you in the hospital bed and coming
to your funeral.
I kid you not.
And if you decide to just change the batteries
after five years and extend it another 10
years, then you're looking 30, 35 bucks a
year, is what the cost is.
Okay?
It's a no-brainer guys.
It's a no-brainer.
Now, this floats.
So I have it attached to my life vest because
if you get thrown from the boat and this gets
out of reach, then what good is it gonna do?
You have to have it attached to you.
This also has a strobe on it and has an infrared
strobe on it.
Now, I don't like them for a reason, but we'll
get to that in a second.
Infrared obviously helps if there's a helicopter
crew looking for you and they're using infrared
technology, they might be able to find you
easier that way.
But, even with this in mind, the strobe itself
isn't something that I really like because
the strobe is in the front, which means it's
blocked by the case in the back.
So it has to be facing your rescuers.
Plus, when I looked at the different strobe
beacons available, this isn't the brightest
one.
It doesn't have as much visibility.
So I really didn't like that.
So what I did is I changed it.
Not changed it, but I went and got myself
a strobe.
And, again, I did a lot of research, but this
is the one I came up with.
This is also by ACR.
I'm not sponsored by any of these guys.
Trust me.
None of these companies, I'm sponsored.
I'm just telling you.
But I got this one for two reasons.
Number one, it's water activated.
So if you get thrown from the boat and you
happen to be unconscious, at least this will
go off.
Yeah, it'll go off when it rains.
If it rains really hard, you can accidentally
activate it.
Okay.
So you just touch the button and turn it off.
First world problems, it's not a big deal.
So what?
But why I got this one, is you see the LED
is above this, you know, the actual case.
And because it sticks above the case, it's
omnidirectional.
It can be seen from any direction.
And this is bright enough to be seen two to
three miles away.
So it defaults to strobe.
So when it turns on, it goes to the strobe
signal.
You can see that flashing now.
And if you push it again, it's an SOS signal
and...Sorry, it's a flashlight.
And then you push it one more time and it's
a strobe.
So it's pretty useful.
Definitely, if you're in the dark and you
need light and you're floating around or whatever,
you need to see something that can help you.
But this, I think, can really help people
see you.
If, for example, if they're from the shore
and you get in a wreck, someone can see you
from the shoreline even if they're not receiving
this beacon signal, people close by might
be able to reach you faster if they see this
flashing an SOS signal.
So it's two different ways that you can get
help quickly.
And this only costs 25 bucks, guys, no big
deal.
So that's really, really cheap if it's gonna
save your life.
And you can change the batteries yourself
on this one.
So, you buy it once and you're done.
And I like it because obviously it's attached
to the life vest.
So I did that on purpose because I don't want
it floating away from me.
And it's adhered strongly.
And my thought is if you hit the water going
70 miles an hour, I wanna make sure that these
things still hold on.
So those are those.
And then lastly, what I got was this.
This is a distress whistle, distress signal,
okay?
It's really inexpensive, guys.
Super inexpensive.
I got links to all these on the bottom of
this video.
The lanyard itself is reflective.
And, again, I have it tied on to the life
vest so you don't lose it if you go overboard.
This is extremely loud.
It's 120 decibels.
Super, super loud.
I'm not gonna blow it right now because it's
gonna blow my ears out.
And I'm standing here in my garage and it's
gonna amplify it even more.
But, excuse me.
This, all you can do is you just blow it like
an SOS distress signal and anybody that's
within earshot like a mile away, or if you've
been on water, you know sound travels far.
This could travel further than a mile away
and someone within earshot can hear it and
will start to hone in on the sound and then
they'll see the flashing SOS.
You can get help pretty quickly with some
really cheap, and this is less than 10 bucks.
Less than, you know, 25.
So, tell me, how much is your life worth,
guys?
This is simple stuff you can add and you're
gonna be safe.
So, this is what I do.
I'm not telling you what you have to do.
I'm not gonna preach to you.
As my mom always said, lead by example.
So I'm just telling you what I do, and hopefully
it inspires you to do the same.
I'd appreciate if you would.
I'd hate to see more headlines with tragic
results.
It's unnecessary with today's technology and
some of the stuff that's available, a lot
of these things could be avoided.
I'm not gonna speculate on the past accidents
that happened because I wasn't there.
So hindsight's always 2020.
But looking forward, if you are well prepared
with this kind of equipment, then it increases
your chances of surviving a tragic accident.
For more tips and tricks like this, visit
BassResource.com.
