Gear Up - It Could Save Your Life

More than 80 percent of boating fatality victims could have been saved — if only they were wearing life jackets.

Chip Hanauer, aka The Boat Guy, is teaming up with the Seattle Mariners to help promote that message through the new “Gear Up” public service campaign that launched last week. Hanauer will be throwing out the first pitch at tonight’s Mariners’ game at Safeco Field to help promote the campaign.

Hanauer’s website features a Gear Up pledge page that humorously asks readers to promise “not to be an idiot (or potential corpse) and wear the proper safety gear” while on the water on all occasions in which they could “possibly drown and ruin everybody’s otherwise great day on the water.”

The stats, however, are sobering – drowning is the second leading cause of accidental injury or death for children aged 1 to 17 in Washington State. In 2013, 17 people died in boating accidents in Washington.

In the video below, Hanauer, a former champion hydroplane racer, notes that he survived numerous spectacular crashes by wearing proper safety equipment. Similarly, boaters should “gear up” and wear life jackets, he says.