PAIGE'S MISCHIEF : LIFE JACKET VIDEO
Chapter One, Part Four
Paige stood on the edge of the dock, tightly strapped into the, slightly too small, CrewSaver SuperSafe Life Jacket. The jacket was incredibly secure, it was bulky, with large foam panels on the chest, heavy duty straps and buckles. It had an extremely bulky collar, it was thick enough that it rose from her shoulders right up to her chin. Unlike the other lifejackets which had collars that flopped down over her upper back this one wrapped tightly around her head, coming forward past her chin. The jacket was noticeably too small, so the collar was tight around her; as a result Paige could not easily rotate her head to look left and right. She had to lift her chin up to get it over the thick foam collar which left her looking up at the sky with her neck stretched and her chin resting on the foam. To avoid this she had to turn her whole torso left and right to look around more than a few degrees.
The dock was deserted, it had been a beautiful day but clouds had rolled in and it was cooling off now without the sun. The jacket was very warm though and she was thankful for its insulation.
The jacket did not come down particularly far over her torso, it covered only her chest and upper back, leaving her stomach and lower back out in the open, covered only by the thin one piece swimsuit she had borrowed for the day. The bulkiness of the jacket on her upper body and around her head made her feel somewhat top heavy and awkward. Most of the jacket’s floatation was in the thick panels over her chest and the thick collar around her neck and behind her head. The Jacket came up over her shoulders and connected to a thin but dense foam panel that made up the back of the jacket and wrapped around the sides under her arms.
The life jacket also had an integrated harness: It consisted of a heavy duty black fabric strap that went around the base of the jacket, wrapping around roughly the middle of Paige’s torso. In the front it passed over the lifejackets flotation and was secured with a metal buckle. As it wrapped around to the back it passed through a heavy fabric tunnel on the outside of the jacket’s dense flotation panel.
In the front there were four fabric loops around this strap: two hung downwards ending in buckles. The other two ran upward, turning into straps like the one around her torso, disappearing into the fabric of the jacket and running up and over each shoulder. They were visible again on the back of the jacket, where they connected in a V just beneath the lifejacket's thick collar, in the small of her back. At the junction of this V was a heavy metal D ring to secure a teather. A third thicker strap came down from the bottom of the V making a Y. This strap ran vertically all the way down the back of the jacket; disappearing briefly under the heavy fabric tunnel of the horizontal strap around her torso. On the other side of the horizontal strap it emerged again, now as two slightly thinner straps, that traveled beyond the bottom of the jacket down the length of her lower back, passing under and between her legs, and then coming back up in the front where they were clipped securely into the buckles that hung from the front. The result was a tight web of heavy duty straps, wrapped around her torso and the jacket’s bulky flotation. It was an extremely snug and safe feeling being strapped into it. The harness also had a fabric loop in the front to lift someone from the water, in the back the vertical strap that made up the bottom of the Y served the same purpose before it met the horizontal strap and changed into the two crotch straps.
On top of all the foam and straps the jacket had two large air bladders on the front, these were currently inflated and made the jacket even more bulky. they bulged out from the front of the jacket over Paige’s chest and blocked some of her downward visibility.
Paige twisted around in the jacket, enjoying the bulky, secure, comfort. She pulled absently at the ends of the straps running down from the waist belt. Everything was very tight and secure. There was no one around and she stepped up to the edge of the dock looking down at the water below. There was a bit of wind now and the water was no longer still, small waves were breaking against the dock. Paige was a strong swimmer tho and was hardly concerned about it anyway while strapped into such a ridiculously over the top lifejacket.
Twisting at the waist to look around at the empty docks one last time Paige turned back to the water and stepped confidently out into open space.
It was about a five foot drop to the surface. With the weather cooling off the water was significantly warmer than the surrounding air. The warmth of the water was the first sensation Paige had as her feet first broke the surface of the water, her legs and torso charging quickly after. A split second later, just as she felt she was fully entering the water, she felt the lifejacket start to take over, pulling aggressively upward against her momentum and trying to tip her back. She had just enough speed from the fall to be totally underwater for a brief moment, not even long enough to get her bearings, before the jacket yanked her to the surface. Blinking the water from her eyes Paige found herself on her back: her torso in the warm water just below the surface; her legs outstretched, hanging down below her slightly; the lifejacket tight around her upper body; the collar holding her head, a cross between a pillow and a neck brace.
Paige squirmed a bit in the jacket. It was wrapped around her securely and there was no conceivable way she could slip out. The flotation was wrapped tightly around her upper torso: wrapping over her shoulders and around under her armpits; secured in the front with a metal buckle and heavy zipper. The harness of heavy duty straps wrapped around on the outside of the foam, providing another layer of security, and passed between her legs, stopping her from sliding out, keeping her firmly inside the jacket.
It was so comforting, Paige just floated there enjoying it for a while. It reminded her of one time in school when the teacher had them meditate, she felt like she was falling and yet supported and held. Between the collar, behind her head and around her neck, and the inflated airbags, over her chest, her head felt swaddled in floatation. With the waves gently rising and falling she felt like she was a baby being rocked, like she could drift off to sleep in the warm water.
She was pulled from her reverie by the sound of voices and footsteps above her. Paige's eyes shot open, suddenly aware that she was floating around relaxing while strapped into a children's life jacket in a public place. She tried to turn and look behind her, restricted by the bulk of the Life Jacket it took her a moment as she had to her body a hundred and eighty degrees. The voices were getting fainter now, a pair walking down the dock she had just jumped off. They had not stopped moving or talking so it was an easy conclusion that she had not been noticed but she suddenly felt very exposed.
The dock was supported by large wooden poles and was a good five feet above the water here. Along the side it had horizontal boards right down to the water line. Paige forced herself onto her stomach and made a couple strokes toward the dock, swimming in the jacket was cumbersome at best but the waves helped propel her the short distance. A brief moment later Paige took hold of one of the horizontal boards and used it to push herself underwater, a surprisingly difficult task, and kicked to push herself under. The jacket popped her back up so fast she barely made it under, nearly bumping her head on the board as she came back up. Now under the walkway and hidden from sight by the casual passerby Paige felt more at ease. Beneath the dock it was a somewhat dark and gloomy maze of wooden boards and supports. The water was still warm and it rose and fell with the waves, which were continuing to pick up, such that Paige found herself in a somewhat interesting world of shifting water and wooden poles.
The dock went along parallel to shore; on her left was open water beyond the wall of horizontal boards, on her right was a concrete retaining wall that she didn't know was there but made sense with the water deep enough for boats. Having never been under the dock before Paige was unsure about the depth of the water under there, waiting until the water fell between waves she pushed herself down from a nearby support beam and reached with one foot as deep as she could to see if it was reachable. Her toes found nothing but cold water as the next wave passed under the dock and the Life Jacket firmly pulled her back upward. Knowing that the water was still too deep to reach the bottom somehow made the jacket more cozy.
Glancing around Paige was a little lost for what to do, the jacket was super comfy and she loved being in it in the water but she was getting a little bored of just twisting around and squirming in the water.
The dock went along the shore almost all the way back to the shop. Looking at the maze of poles Paige decided to start working her way in that direction, it was something to do at least and she couldn't stay all night afterall.
Swimming under the dock was tricky, it was almost like an obstacle course with the jumbled wooden beams and the rising and falling water. After a few minutes Paige realised it was easier, and more fun, not to actually swim but to use the posts, pushing off of them to travel from one to the next. The waves were constantly pushing her toward the retaining wall on her right so she had to keep moving left to compensate as well. She was intentionally timing her jumps from post to post to coincide with the waves coming under, it made progress more difficult but it was fun to fight against the lifejacket as it caught the wave and tried to pull her off to the right. She could kick and stroke as hard as she could, but without fail the buoyancy of the jacket would get carried away by the wave, dragging her with it. It felt like a giant grabbing her and pulling her back. She was having a lot of fun now.
As the dock neared the end of the marina area close to the shop she had taken the lifejacket from, it sloped down to eventually meet the beach. Paige realized she was making significant progress as the ceiling was getting much lower. Wondering about the depth of the water again Paige repeated her experiment from earlier waiting for a gap between waves and pushing down on a support post to get her toe as deep as she could, this time using both hands and managing to get her face underwater. Still nothing but cold water, too deep to reach the bottom, this time it surprised her as she couldnt be too far from the beach. She was happily surprised she had failed to reach the bottom, it made the jacket feel more important, like she needed it or couldn’t escape it’s flotation. Paige took a break from her obstacle course progress and just squirmed around in the jacket a little again. It was fun to pretend to try and get out, or to actually try to get out but without undoing any of the buckles or straps. Pulling on the shoulders and squirming around in a futile escape attempt without any leverage in the deep water was exhilarating. The jacket still picking her up and dropping her in the waves, she closed her eyes again, enjoying the jacket immensely and floating free in an open space, just out of reach of any support beams. After a moment of distracted squirming the waves shoved her into the retaining wall. It wasn't a particularly hard hit and it was cushioned by the Life Jacket but the sudden introduction of something solid startled her. She had been enjoying the sensation of floating freely in open water. Paige rotated onto her back, laying her head on the collar and letting the jacket hold her, she put her feet on the wall and pushed off hard, sailing back out into the open space and going meditative again, wriggling around and enjoying the jacket some more. Again though after just a moment she was pushed into the wall. Paige repeated this once more becoming more frustrated with the tight quarters under the dock. She considered heading back out to open water but knew she couldn't relax out where she could be seen. Annoyed Piage looked around for a solution with no expectation of actually finding one. What she needed was something to hold her off the wall, a rope or something she could tie to the jacket, she didn't have a rope. There was the lifting strap on the lifejacket tho… Twisting Paige turned to face the nearest post and awkwardly swam over to it, the lifting strap was not long enough to wrap around the post, let alone tie off. Besides, if she tied it off there would be a post right in front of her. Annoyed but already trying to think of more solutions Paige resumed working her way slowly along the dock, the ceiling kept getting lower, making her think she was nearing the beach, but every time she tried to reach the bottom it was too deep to touch with her toes.
After a few minutes of working her way from post to post Paige was back to just enjoying the jacket, squirming from time to time and fighting the waves. The roof was low enough now that she could put her palm flat against it when the waves picked her up, she still couldn’t touch it in the gaps between the waves.
Paige had her toe down again searching for the bottom in the, still cold, deep water. Every time she tested the depth and found that she couldn't touch the bottom she found herself squirming in the jacket for a few minutes. This time, as she squirmed about enjoying herself, a particularly big wave came through, leaving only a couple feet of space between the water and the ceiling, it picked her up, her head almost brushing the ceiling. As it did she noticed a broken horizontal beam: It ran about a foot below the ceiling; from the retaining wall on the right to the wall of horizontal boards and open water on the left; connecting several of the vertical posts. But it was snapped off halfway between two of those posts, the rest of the beam was missing save a small piece hanging from the last beam on the left. As the wave dropped her back down she leaned back to look back up at it again, it was about three feet above her now and it looked like the grab loop on the front of her jacket might just fit over it. Excited by the idea Paige treaded water in place waiting for the next wave to experiment with hooking the jacket onto the beam.
The next wave wasn't nearly as big as the one before, but as it picked her up she reached up and got a hold of the beam easily enough. Pulling herself up high enough to get the loop to the level of the beam was another story tho. She had a hold of the beam so the lifejacket wasn’t supporting her weight anymore, but her arms were fully stretched out. She could pull herself up a bit if she really tried but not high enough to get the grap loop, in the middle of her chest, up to the beam. And she definitely couldn't do it while keeping a hand free to actually put the loop over the end of the beam. She hung from the beam as the waves fell away down to her waist, then rose back up to chest level several times. None of them quite big enough to really lift her, though they did take a little weight when they rose. After hanging there for a few minutes another big wave finally came through. This one coming up to her chin and lifting her by the lifejacket. It was all she needed. Keeping hold of the beam with one hand to get herself lined up, and taking hold of the loop with her other, The wave lifted her right up the ceiling and she slid the loop cleanly over the beam. Letting go she allowed the wave to carry her off to the right, the loop sliding over the beam. No sooner was it over than the wave fell away, dropping her. Paige started to fall with the wave and was caught short in mid air by the, now hanging, lifejacket. She was left suspended above the surface as the water fell back down to her waist. In the open air the jacket, now harness, took much more of her weight. She couldn't squirm nearly as much as she could in the water, also in part due to the beam that was right in her face. She had hung in the air in the jacket before, briefly, when Tim had hauled her out of the water by this same strap, but that had been for just a moment. The integrated harness had her hanging in the same position the jacket would hold her in the water, her torso at about forty five degrees with her legs hanging below her. It was much harder to move around than it was in the water. The straps between her legs were giving her a wedgie, she tried to pull herself up a bit, first by the shoulders of the jacket which amazingly were still tight over her shoulders, then by the beam, she was getting to be pretty tired out tho and after a moment of hanging by her arms she just slumped into the jacket/harness and hung there, squirming a bit uncomfortably from time to time.
She couldn't decide if she liked it or not. The water wasn’t lifting and dropping her anymore, the waves rose up to her chest, but not high enough to lift the jacket, and then dropped down to her waist. Paige squirmed around some more trying to get comfortable, then took a deep breath and went limp, relaxing, letting her arms hang by her sides, leaning her head back and closing her eyes, trying to relax. It wasn’t uncomfortable but it was kinda boring. She was just deciding that she had enough when she was startled by another big wave in her face, this one came up to her chin again, lifting the lifejacket, and Paige, up so her weight was off the loop and she was floating again. She was immediately aware of how much better the jacket was in the water and was thoroughly enjoying the relief from hanging in the air as she suddenly slammed into a wooden pole. The wave had carried her toward the retaining wall, the grab loop sliding freely along the broken beam, she had been pushed right down the beam all the way to the next vertical post. As the wave fell away again, the grab loop went taught once more over the beam, the water dropped back to her waist and she hung, suspended in the air once again. Now a good distance down the beam, far from the gap she had slipped the loop over.
Twisting to look left down the beam she had slid down Paige immediately felt some concern, It wasn’t all that far but moving while hanging in the jacket was difficult.
“Shit” She thought to herself clutching the beam with her arms and kicking in the water with her feet to keep herself oriented. Letting go of the beam she fell into the harness again, it was definitely less comfortable than being in the water, she couldn't rotate her torso while hanging from the loop, which meant she couldn't really look around without doing a pull up. The straps between her legs were much tighter hanging in the jacket than floating in it, grabbing the shoulder of the jacket she tried shifting and squirming a little. There wasn't any give. Paige briefly considered just taking the jacket off, but that would leave it hanging from the beam above her and she wasn’t really sure how easily she could then retrieve it while swimming. It would be at the limit of what she could reach from the water. Plus the idea of swimming instead of floating in the water was really undesirable at this point, especially with how tired she was getting and how rough the water was getting.
Taking a breath and resolving to try and make some progress Paige took hold of the beam with both hands and pulled herself up, the slack came off the loop but now what? She couldn’t hang on with one hand and couldn't make the strap move with her hands otherwise occupied. She tried to push it with her face but wasn't able to maneuver well enough. Letting go she fell back down into the harness again and immediately struggled rather aggressively. Hanging in the jacket was starting to grow on her a little.
After hanging limp for a moment to rest Paige reached up again and took hold of the beam pulling herself up as high as she could this time. With some squirming and exertion she managed to get her forearms over the beam. So she was almost hugging it rather than holding onto it. This was easier to maintain and got her face right up against the beam. The loop was slack in front of her now but she definitely couldn’t move well enough to push it with her face. Actually between the beam and the collar she could barely move her head at all, she was stuck l;ooking almost straight up, just able to see the strap on the top of the beam.
Squirming rather aggressively Paige managed to get the strap to move down the beam a little. She was twisting back and forth, walking her forearms along the beam a little with each twist, pulling the strap along a few inches at a time. It was working slowly.
Paige was genuinely exerting herself doing this, she was breathing heavily and very focused. She had to twist aggressively to make the strap move inches at a time. Then she had to make a little hop to walk one forearm then the other down the beam a little.
As she worked her way slowly along the water was still rising and falling up from her waist to chest. Paige was getting exhausted and frustrated, she just wanted to be free of the beam, the water was warm and inviting, it was easy to squirm around it, relaxing.
Tired out and about halfway to the gap Paige let go of the beam and hung in the harness taking a break. She couldn't help squirming a little and mostly just hung limp and relaxed, her eyes closed. She was really thirsty and tired but she was also enjoying the sensation of hanging in the jacket now. It was much more restrictive than floating and there was something enjoyable about that. If it wasn't for the fact that she was dreading the effort of escaping from the beam she thought it could actually be enjoyable. Unconsciously she took hold of the shoulder straps of the jacket and twisted around gently. Enjoying the extra restrictive situation. She was just thinking that all that was missing was the sensation of being pulled along that the waves provided when, as if on cue, the next big wave came surging through and picked her up. There was just a second of blissful enjoyment before Paige realised she was being pulled back along, her eyes snapped open and she grabbed the beam, stopping herself in the midst of the wave. It surprised her how strongly the wave pulled on her as she clutched the beam. For the brief moment that it lasted it was nice to be floating again. As the wave fell away Paige kept hold of the beam sparing herself another pull up. Hanging by her arms again she resumed her slow progress back to the broken end of the beam.
Moments later a now exhausted Paige found herself back at the end of the broken beam, with just a few inches to go. Hesitating at the edge Paige let go of the beam, letting the harness take her weight one last time. Holding onto the front of the jacket with her arms and thoroughly enjoying the sensation of hanging in the harness. Looking down she could have sworn she was somehow much higher than she had been when she managed to get up there. The three or four foot drop somehow looked like at least 5 or 6 feet. After a few moments, a little halfheartedly, Paige reached up grabbing the beam and taking her weight off the jacket, she leaned forward trying to slide the loop of the lifejacket off the end of the beam but the splintered end kept catching the strap. After a few failed attempts Paige was starting to become frustrated again. Putting one hand on the end of the bean and using the other to take most of her weight off the strap she pulled hard; it worked, the strap slid free of the beam and suddenly Paige was free falling down to the surface. Despite freeing herself intentionally the sudden fall shocked her and as she hit the water she was in pure panic mode. The life jacket's impressive flotation stopped her even going completely beneath the surface, after a second or two of panicked falling and splashing Paige found herself bobbing in the water once again, supported by the lifejacket.
Despite being tired out by this point Paige was still really enjoying the lifejacket, It was like knowing she had to get up in the morning but not wanting to leave a warm and cozy bed. Reluctantly she made her way down the sport remaining section of the dock. Letting the jacket take her weight again and casually drifting from pole to pole. She wondered what it would be like to sleep in the jacket, floating out in the open sea, or perhaps a warm pool. The idea was appealing, it was such a cosy sensation being strapped into the vest. At the end of the dock at last Paige had to use her arms again to push herself underwater against the floatation of the vest. Kicking to get under the wall and back out into the open. As she cleared the dock the jacket yanked her back onto the surface without a moment's hesitation. Blinking water from her eyes Paige was relieved to see the beach was empty. Though that was quickly followed by regret that she would have to remove the vest. Despite wanting to prolong her swim she made her way to the beach quickly concerned that someone might come along. Moments later she was standing on the sandy ground removing the vest. As she returned the jacket to the shed and went to get changed she again began to attack the problem of how to purchase a vest for herself. oOr get into one again;. tThere was always a chance Tim would ask her to do more videos, it probably depended on how the first ones went over. Maybe there was something to be done there. Regardless Paige was pretty confident she could come up with something.
