Can you swim with Combat Gear?
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- čas přidán 31. 07. 2024
- After our first video testing the plate carrier quick release system in the water, we received a bunch of comments that we feel we have to address.
So can you swim with tactical gear? Yes, swimming with some tactical gear is possible under certain conditions. Swimming with full loadout is not.
I hope we have now cleared this topic.
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As a certified Australian life guard, I can confirm even the most limited clothing can be a very quick death sentence for the inexperienced. I've seen people fail qualification just with jeans and sneakers on, let alone military boots and a full kit. Unless you've spent a lot of time around water, and have felt the weight of soaked gear pulling you down to the depths, nothing can really prepare you for the shock. Excellent educational series - this needs to be taken seriously!
Thank you for your service.
@@silkplayer9 I second that. Thanks, mate!
how do people fail with jeans and sneakers on
@@user-03-gsa3 Clothing is heavier when wet and, especially in water where there's more resistance, creates more drag. Shoes in particular make your feet heavier and less effective as paddles. Most people swim in light clothes that are designed to not absorb as much water and be body-tight. The unexpected added weight and drag means you need to use more effort than normal to stay afloat, tiring you out quicker and if you're not ready for it, putting you underwater in an unrecoverable position; it could simply take more effort than you can output to save yourself, thus drowning.
my dad has done it and it hard to do but not that hard (if you get me)
On behalf of not in shape guys, we apologize, sometimes we have opinions on things that are clouded by Cheetos.
You bring that "Amateur" meme
**waves french fries under your nose** I'm sure you can be persuaded to... Shall we say, change your mind?
@@privateassman8839 mmmmmmm fries
I am 171cm and 56kg, my friend is 181cm and around 100kg, he floats really well when we go swimming, and I do not. but maybe with heavy stuff on you, that extra bodyweight only makes you sink more? no idea :p
Cheetos float.
I have expeirienced this in the military and what you say is true. We make our rucks float and did not wear body armor. Also, soft armor alone, usually floats, but that only stops handguns and shrapnel.
@Francis Marion you nailed it .. i see many talking without knowing nothing ,.. thank you for your reply
Iirc soft armour can get damaged when it's entirely saturated with water as well.
Yeah during Helocast training we did it with Flics and Rucks also with the similar floaters
People couldn’t even do it with ww2 gear on dday I couldn’t imagine doing it with a plate carrier
Nope, look up FRAS (Flexible Rifle Armor System)
Rifle rated and very comfortable
Marine Corps swim qual: (For those curious.)
We did the exact drill you did.
We _did_ have a plate carrier, we _did_ have a helmet, boots and rifle.
_However..._
The drill was to shed the gear off and return to the surface, not tread water.
2ND BTL, GolfCO, PLT2026, 27-01-20 to 24-04-2020, and was Parris Island, so this is probably the norm today as well.
Rah
It is the norm still 2021
The current standards for military are a joke. If women can pass it cannot be serious.
True.
Boot
I’ve almost drown twice simply due to adverse water conditions. Most of the northern hemisphere now has paralyzingly cold water temperatures. People need to refrain from commenting on how easy it is to stay afloat with gear on, until they try it themselves.
I can easily spot commenters that have never even tried swimming with BDUs and boots, much less a plate carrier. It looks simple on video and in theory 😆
Cold water almost got me once - it was a civilian setup, we were having fun and i jumped from a moving sailboat in cold sea as a dare. It was a bit windy and it was splashing the sea but nothing crazy - the problem was that i had the cold water breathing response with quick shallow breaths, that combined with the splashing sea almost got me.
The guys on the sailboat were just a couple of meters away and they never even realized i was in distress. What saved me is staying as calm as i could and having my head above the water and coughing like crazy with some water in my lungs.
Now that im older i have much more respect towards open waters
dude i can barely swim with a regular t shirt and jeans and shoes on and ive lived near water my whole life, anyone that thinks they can swim with military gear on (around 50-70kg or more when its dry) is just ignorant.
A basic cotton T shirt that we've all worn, goes from weighing like a pound maybe to weighing around 3-5 pounds when it soaked.
You are also less bouyant in colder water.
I feel like their assumptions are based off of video games like battlefield and call of duty, where swimming in those games with a full kit and staying afloat is as easy as breathing.
@@PolenarTactical ya, were I live you learn this in school and get to try it out multipule times over the years so if you ever go through ice you have a better understanding what to do. It happend me and the thing that saved me was the boring lessons of listening what to do if you fall into the water and what to do to help someone that fell into the water. And of course the adrenaline that kept me from really feeling the cold.
I fully agree with you, swimming with so much extra weight is truly exhausting. Great videos to remind people of this danger.
In the Netherlands, all/most children go through swimming lessons and certifications. One part of that is swimming in full winter/rain clothes. So normal long pants, a shirt and sweater, a coat and wellies. And that is hard enough as it is, let alone with the added weight of tactical gear.
That's interesting to hear. In Slovenia we also have the mandatory swim lessons but we never had the test with full winter clothes. This could be fun or terrifying for the kids :D
@@PolenarTactical As a fellow dutchman I can say that it is quite fun when the water is nice and warm :). I can't really recommend ice cold water. Let alone fall through ice with all your gear on (and without any experience).
even swimming in just ripstop trousers which aren't buoyant was noticeably harder when I tried.
I'm not trying this shit with 2kg helmet, 10kg plate and 3.5kg rifle, it's just not happening
Add on the fact that cold water saps your strength, and will trigger an urge to gasp when you hit the water.
We also got to try swimming in full clothing here in Sweden when I went to school ages ago, shit's hard.
I was on the swim team in high school and we did a drill where we had to swim in sweat pants and a sweat shirt and that was exhaustive after only a minute or so. I can’t possibly fathom swimming with kit. Ballistic helmets are heavy, plates, mags, a gun, all the other gear etc is heavy. I’d say I’m shocked they have to revisit it, but everyone is an expert when there’s a screen protecting you from a realistic reaction to your stupidity.
I weigh about 108lbs. I think a lot of people don’t realize just how much weight they are adding to themselves with plates and ammo. Being a small guy, I can really tell just how heavy that stuff is. All that stuff is far more dense than the human body. You’re adding a lot of mass without adding much surface area to keep you buoyant. They also don’t consider drag… sweat pants and sweatshirt would be freaking horrible for that lol.
I was in the army and we did practice to swim with uniforms on no armor. I was feeling pretty confident but soon as I jumped in I realized how difficult it was just swimming with uniforms no other gear.
I never fell in icy water but i have jumped in so cold water that gave me the fast breathing response. Not fun at all and very dangerous. I was gulping for air and i cant imagine how it would look if my head went under
Holy snack, Ziga just water boarded himself with that back stroke 😂❤️
Wasn't even able to do one back stroke, just sank like a rock 😂
6:44 that scenario is actually terrifying if your vest fails or you don’t have one, imagine going to the bottom of the sea trying to remove the plate carrier and even if you manage you still need to get to the surface.
So this is how I tell if people haven't been in deep water or gone scuba diving before. He isn't even talking about the pressure you will feel as you pass 12ft, 15ft, 18ft etc. When I am in a controlled environment it's not difficult to equilize and make sure that I am being efficient but in a situation like this you don't have a ton of time, and as you get dragged deeper the pressure is going to be absolutely awful and at a certain point it will become a major factor in your death. I love the ocean, and I am bummed that since Covid I haven't had the opportunity to go anywhere, but water is something that deserves respect due to how easily it can kill you.
An entire squad of SEALS died once directly after a helo drop into water because they couldn’t find their raft in the pitch darkness. The sunk almost instantly because if the weight. It’s not possible to swim in gear
Edit: it’s was in the rough ocean at night
That sucks man
Do you have an article or source
@@ForestWW its hard to find stuff but i think if u search for 1984 grenada u should find something
@@Schimml0rd thank you brother
No initial plan survives first contact
I have a first class swim Qualification. I 100%agree with him. You are a rock with all that gear on. I learned how to save lives swimming.
I know a few guys in who are ex SBS and they used to have special floats that used to go in the plate bag to help but if your life is in danger just drop the kit and save your life
But they are nothing without the weapons. If swim ashore will be captured or killed.
@@MbisonBalrog they are trained to keep there weapon if it came off while you fell you would have your side arm
@@robsmotos9899 I cannot picture. Boat troops need like a kick board or something.
Swimming with normal clothes on and shoes adds difficulty on its own. Those layers soak up so much water it weighs you down and makes you sluggish. Id consider myself a decent swimmer, but having jumped in my pool with clothes on for fun after an airsoft match and the difference is measurable
2:18 - at this point everything's already clear. No matter how good you're at swimming, just the fact how quickly you sink between each stroke shows how brutal is is to stay above the surface.
I mean... heck, even simply swimming in nothing but street clothing is incredibly exhausting after several minutes (shoes become +2kg dumbbells on your feet).
Honestly, I'm quite shocked that you received so many complaints about the last video. Informative and also entertaining video (as always), thanks!
yeh, this part was BRUTAL
the backstroke too :'D
Well, that explains why I was taught to undo the waist strap when crossing rivers while backpacking.
Great stuff. And these peps are putting a lot of work into their vids. Very good job.
Thank you!
We invest a lot of thinking and energy in these videos trying to make them educational, entertaining and to the point. Im glad it's getting noticed :)
@@PolenarTactical Oh it is....plenty of us notice - and enjoy them :)
@@PolenarTactical Well good luck, really. And don't fuck it up.
Hi gang.
To answer the question remember how many hundreds of good guys died on D Day only because their landing barge was just a few meters too far from the shore.
Good video as usual
Actually trillions died just jumping into the water.
@@Dan-di9jd 🤣 there wasn't even trillions of people in WW II
@@stephenbarabas6286 that’s cause they all drowned
Reiben, where's your BAR?
@@Dan-di9jd Trillions is may be a little too much/ Thousands would be more likely. And even it's always too much.
Rifle is but a tool, you can always get attached to it, but if it threatens your life, you drop it. Your survival is always the priority over well being of your equipment.
A man dies with its rifle in hand. No matter if its on land or sea!
@@peteraugust5295 🤡
@@peteraugust5295 I appreciate a good joke from a German clown who can't even carry a proper knife in his country🤡
@@Fredjo No worries, at least I can carry a beer 😎
My great uncle was a combat engineer at Omaha. His sergeant always told them to buckle their helmets, which they hated but did.
Well, when the gate dropped on the boat my uncle took a step out to get on the beach only to find a crater existed where he thought there would be beach. He barely could get his head up three times before being completely exhausted. thankfully some fellow engineers saw him - they grabbed him by his helmet (good thing it was buckled) - and drug him onto the supply raft.
Years later at a reunion he'd overhear a guy telling the story of him pulling up a fellow engineer by the helmet to a group of people. Mug got to meet the guy that saved his life.
Didn't expect to see such artistic expression on an underwater notepad today, this is what we call a man of culture 🙏
Thank you Ziga for actually putting yourself through relevant situations that we/most YT videos haven't addressed. The keyboard warrior commentary was priceless! enjoy your beautiful backyard - without the gear also haha
Good video. As multiple people have noted, the US military trains to ditch gear if you end up in water under most conditions. In fact, one of the swim test tasks that I specifically remember is dropping into water and staying calm while ditching your gear. River-crossings and such operations mean having your gear rigged to be buoyant (typically turning your ruck into a flotation device) and putting all the heavy gear in or on the ruck.
In the marines any time we did full gear swimming you do a lot of prep work mostly emptying all canteens and camel backs. Really adding extra buoyancy any where you can. Also alot of plastic bottles in cargo pockets and iso mats attached on daypacks. Keep in mind this is just training for crossing a small river or stream. For Safety in helo ops over water we allways wear those inflatable life vests and have cant remember what they are called but the little tiny oxygen tanks that give you 5 or so breaths of air.
Those tiny O2 tanks sound like life savers
Neat. Props for showing footage from actual marine drills. Polenar Tactical delivers. :)
14 minutes of Ziga suffering
Perfect to watch during my lunch break
Those soldiers on D day drowning in the sea with all their gear on, it must’ve been horrifying.
"BuT whY cAn'T tHeY jUsT sWiM?"
some Armchair McSmartypants, probably.
Yeah its crazy especially if you consider now vs then infantrymen the modern infantryman carries a lot more weight than those guys did
The guys complaining about you dropping your gun in the water just admitted Marines were smarter then they were.
My brain just went to: oh god I'm gonna have to clean the rust off this rifle now.
But absolutely, if it's causing you to drown just drop it.
Mad props man, in the coast guard i trained with all gear on plus belt flotation and it was still bad, as soon as you hit the water you dump the gear or risk sinking period.
Having done something like this for lifesaving training, I’d suggest losing the boots as well, particularly for a long duration swim. Once they get full of water, they really are just deadweight. The trick is getting them off, but we trained to do it using a variation on the “dead man float position.”
When I was 10 years old I was trying to walk over the rocks to an isolated beach one of the rocks I was stepping on slipped from under my foot, I pushed off the rocks to avoid hitting them and then I fell into the water only a few meters from the shore wearing only shorts a t-shirt, shoes and a backpack with only house keys, a towel, a bottle of water and a couple of sandwiches and I barely made it to shore! So I can't even imagine how you could try to swim even 5 meters in full combat gear! And what if you fall like a stone into the river and the current pushes you under the rocks, it's scary to even think about it. You recorded a great video, many thanks and greetings from Poland.
Whoever is editing this, I love you
I would never in my life think of writing you a stupid comment or laughing at you. As I have known you and your team for nine years now and your experience and testing of different things and techniques is very useful. I probably won't need to swim in the water with the gear. But it's good to know what to do and how it works. You are such Slovenian myth busters. You have a lot of respect and esteem from me. And a lot of gratitude when you make something funny. The Grip Clamp C, for example.
Video Snafu 13:05. It happens.
I recently saw some pull tab belt buoyancy thingies mentioned by a delta guy to have a chance if forced to have x amount of gear.
DAMN!
Thanks for letting us know, we will edit it out in the YT editor.
We just made so many revisions of this video that at the end nobody checked the obvious part that we had to cut out 😅
Being round is a floatation device on his own, fat is much less dense than muscle!
good point
But as dense as some people are, they might tend to float upside-down.
The real question here is not how you survived in the water but how the person behind the camera survived laughing so hard while you were golden-retrieving around in that pool.
our camera-ninja is a professional
These videos are the best! Thanks for the share!!
Even if you are in shape swimming with weight is a pain in the ass. I remember doing a CWSA with a rubber duck, FLC, UCPs and boots and it made a significant difference in difficulty
Spot on video. Survival is everything.
Great video guys!
Thank you!
I greatly and gratefully appreciate your very hard work and excellent video.
My man Ziga out here (with asthma) ready to drown himself just to prove a point.
R E S P E C T
I had to laugh so hard when he ran those 33km between the stages in total and dropped that healthy info.
I was a swimmer and we would carry up to 12 lbs. medicine balls over our heads and just kick with fins on, most of the team would reach failure and struggle to tread water after about 20 seconds of this. I would say this was one of the most difficult exercises we would do and i loved it but I couldn't imagine doing that without fins, at least 5 times the weight, and all the while wearing clothing and boots which inhibit your capacity to swim.
Excellent test showcasing and proving the keyboard warriors wrong, well done!
This is why we use boats, rope lines, and flotation devices (and/ or strip everything off and pack it up into a Ruck with air trapped inside to aid in buoyancy) for any kind of variable water crossing.
Go change your socks lol! Great job y'all.
You’re right when you say it’s not realistic, because lakes, rivers and oceans have currents and waves and other such things that backyard pools do not have
I bet those people who thought you can swim with full battle gear think that you can float in plate mail armour... Haiya...
We swam in full gear. With fins. We also used close cell inserts on our plate carriers to offset the weight. Also we had our horse caller vest to offset the additional weight of the rest of the gear.
Hopefully this helps shed some light on this subject.
I know that the Coast Guard adds floatation devices in front of their plates & around their body to make them neutrally or positively buoyant. I also know the Eagle Industry H-Harness has pouches for buoyant pads sen in.
My leg cramp by just watching you swimming soo yeah. Ditch your riffle and gears guys.. love your content
Great video as always.
Much respect Sir. You have a lot of guts for testing this. There is no way I'd try this. Thank you.
Very welcome
Well, thank you for getting in the pool for us. It was interesting, and also a little bit of fun 😂
Few decades ago, do a jetty jump from the service boat. Wore full uniform and put on the life vest . The uniform and combat boot already make us exhausted.
Follow up videos are actually really great, thanks for getting all that cardio in that I told myself I'd do this year
Thanks for sharing Polenar-Tac 🤙
Yup, it's impossible to swim with all of that stuff even we have strong muscles and really good at swim.
The stamina will reduce from time to time. The plate carrier, mags, weapons ect, will pull the operator all the way down to the bottom till the last breathe. But maybe the LPU like the fighter pilots have will help hehe.
Well, thanks for sharing, stay healthy for y'all & Safety First! 😉🤙
You should've done the video with the 'Jaws' theme and a rubber shark. That would have shut up the peanut gallery! 😆😎
Very informative, kudos
People just don't underrstand that it's cheap and easy to replace equipment but highly skilled and proven soldiers don't roll out of factories.
But what I want to know, how much shrinkage was going on after a whole day in that pool Ziga?
Not to forget that most units, depending on there mission, have even backpacks with food, water, even more ammo and sometimes special equipment.
Swimming is not an option.
YEs .. nailed it!! i agree with user @Francis Marion ... Yep .. and with Ziga .. i knew it from the beginning ...!! i understand very well how much effort you had to put into that to stay barely abroad!!! ZIGA .. well done .. Hi from Italy
Thankyou for your experiment. I always have a question about this.
I swim like a rock with just boots on... In full gear I could drown in a puddle...
Same here
😂
This is primarily one of major reasons why I ditched my old school plate carrier and got the new Agilite K19, it has quick release straps. And in my area I’m surround by a big ass lake, which is fed by a couple rivers and a crazy amount of creeks, it’s also swampy in many areas.
I don’t want to hit a marshy spot or slip on all this clay into an embankment.
I need something I can ditch if I find myself in too deep of water.
That little addition might not matter if you live somewhere dry.
Always adapt to your environment
You don't want a soldier who ended up becoming too tired when they force themselves swimming in full armor to the shores
People have an incredibly wrong understanding of how density works. They think "You can easily swim with 20 kg of gear in your, since you weigh 85kg already. Thats not that much more weight".
Only that water has a density almost similar to that of a human body, while a ballistic plates and rifles do not not. The average rifle with 3.5kg at a desity of 7.86kg/dm³ will drag you down with a force of 31N or 3.1kg in water. while your bodyweight will be close to equilibrium.
That "threading water" Argument therefore is pretty silly. 20kg of gear, will result in probably 160-180N of additonal downforce. That is exactly the same, as if 18kg of your Body would be above the waterline. Try treading yourself out of the water to the line of your nipples for 10 mintes, then let me know how it went. A good swimmer might reach 200 or 250N in forward directed force at the peak of his stroke. On average I would be surprised if one can deliver 100N though. And that is horizontally, at full efford with all limbs, not upwards, with half of your arms reach out of the dense water and gear restricting your movement.
Math an physics, i like it! :)
Those big round guys you talk about might be able to swim with the gear on. You seem to have forgotten that Fat floats.
fair point :D
That was a great video I will say this use your bag with a water proof bags containing your gear such as uniforms to create a flotation device for your gear and your self. To cross bodies of water..
Haha I love that. "Drowning with extra steps". Reminds me of Rick and Morty, slavery with extra steps.
Very informative
The not so smart comments, are from Warzone 2 players who swim with EOD gear and heavy gear on.
In real life, it's simple and straight to the point that a rifle will SIGNIFICANTLY weigh you down. Especially the ammo and gear you wear.
Great video and demonstration.
Great video
Thanks
Yooooo!
Great topic. Tactical Hyve has a series on this. Water wings plus floating plates?
I have swam in live river with BDU, without any gear and it was exhausting as hell (you know, the cargo pocket full of water), so thinking you can do it with an extra 10-15kg… good luck.
For the last few days I’ve been looking for a manual inflating PFD and I was gonna test it, but thanks for saving my gear from a trip into chlorine or bacteria infested still water
Thank you for doing this video. I have wandered if this was possible.
I have also wandered: if wearing a empty hydration bladder behind the front plate and for the short time you can swim, blowing it up would create enough buoyancy to change the results of your test? I know it would be a challenge boing this to say the least.
I am sincere with this question.
Gotta love how heavy just the plate it
Without all the mags, gun and other utility items
Also your IFAK bandaids get wet too :(
I think you can rig the pull tab on the QR buckle by tying them with a paracord loosely.
Polenar Tactical presents "Aquarium Brutality!"
Спасибо за понятное и внятное произношение, до сих пор я не мог нормально понимать английский на слух и думал что все так неразборчиво говорят, но сейчас я понимаю почти каждое слово, спасибо
There are some newer plates that can float. They are not as protective. But they don't drag you down either.
I have heard about some ship boarding units using them even with the lower protection.
Polenar tactical always bringing fun vídeos about guns, cheers from Brazil, maybe someday i could spent my vacations in Slovenia and know about more about you country. But now i have only one curiosity, what beer is this that sometimes you drink on your Vídeos?
Honestly, a very interesting video.
good job Ziga... that is a topic I only saw here.
once with my guys, we were offered a quick boat ride by a guy from the navy.
we all got on board with our equipment (guns, ballistic plate, magazine and heavy helmet) at the time it was very fun but with hindsight also very dangerous because if one of us had fallen into the water he would have sink right to the bottom of the sea….
as i remember well coastgard have armor plate with positive buyancy but as you mention level III only
It’s obvious that all that extra weight and gear is a fast way to drown. But maybe floating helmet strapped to eg belt can give a little help?
A lot of people drowned on dday so I really doubt we would be able to swim with plate carriers heavier mags etc
As my old gunny said:
"You don't swim in combat gear, you swim away from it or drown in it."
There's a reason quick release exists.
The most important factor is to take your shoes of. If you take you shoes of it's way easier
Can we please get a long video jus about that amazing 105 looker?
This video made me think about the Marines who died when their Sea Knight flipped into the waters of San Diego in 1999. Upside down, underwater, and held down by all their gear... RIP
It’s pretty cool the British millitary redesigned the Royal Marines plates to float
Great video. I bet it really sucked to make it, so thank you for that.
That's definitely one way to write a swimming pool off as a business expense
Huh, its that kind of thing that seems easy when you think about it. But i havent yet gotten a chance to try.
One thing that is worth to mension is that in salt water you float more easily, so if you fall to the sea its different than a pool, anyways amazing video!
i am coughing just from watching you stop it :D
Forget about the armor, I'm more worried about the sharks... Just 'cuz you don't see one doesn't mean there isn't one there...
In '07-08 we were crossing a canal by a wire bridge in Iraq, and our SAW gunner fell in. He had to cut away his armor, helmet, nods, and weapon - and left them all there in the drink. We were about the first "generation" to get the new IOUTV's with the quick detach system, had we been still using the old velcro fold front IBAs and LBE's I dunno if he would have made it.
To the clowns who keep talking about retaining the rifle - that is so unimportant and secondary to just not dying. That dude spent the rest of our OP looking like a helpless wet rat but he survived, and at the end of the day command didn't give a shit that he lost his equipment.
Damn you got smoked pretty quick big guy😊 great video!