Czechoslovakian Inflatable Life Vest, Surplus

Now you have a chance to purchase the best life vest the happy people of Czechoslovakia could produce. If you cannot predict the shipwreck in advance, you will probably sink down to Davy Jones’ Locker before you manage to make this floatable. Thus, it is sold as a super cool grown-up float toy, beer raft, or a conversation-starting living room ornament.

Features

This is the classic military personal flotation device familiar from Commando Comics. It has two separate air compartments that are filled manually by huffing and puffing air into them, and then you just plug the holes shut with the caps attached to the vest. The flotation thingies go on your chest and behind your neck. There are adjustable straps that go around your legs, which are supposed to keep the vest in place. The head opening has a cord for adjusting the size of the opening.

The main material is that durable matt finished rubbery stuff found on old-school air mattresses. One side is olive drab, and the other one is orange. These weigh about 760 grams (1.7 lbs). The buoyancy rating isn't given, and we don’t recommend testing the vest in a rescue situation unless the super deluge strikes when you're carrying this home from the post office.

Use

Simply put, don’t use this to save yourself or others. Well, you can use it if the only other option is an anchor. This might keep you floating the right way around, but it also might not. However, you can definitely use it as a mil-chic float toy for grownups, so you don’t have to nick that pink lil’ pony from your kids for the pool party. Although those ponies are pretty cool, too.

This vest might also work as a floating bar, maybe. Don’t put your better bottles on it though. They might topple over and go sailing away to your neighbor. At least it works as a buoy marking the booze that you try to cool in the lake. Put the orange side up, and it is easy to find.

Condition

Czechoslovakian military surplus. These look unused, but they have been kept in a warehouse for decades, so we sell them purely for collecting.