Life Jacket Loaner Stations Now at Lake Berryessa

Written by: Sarah McBride

Life Jacket Loaner StationForgot your life jacket? Want to play in the water but worry about safety? No problem! Lake Berryessa now offers four life jacket loaner stations at Oak Shores Day Use Area for public use. We want our visitors to always be safe and that is why we now have approximately 150 child and adult sized life jackets available for use free of charge.

The risk of drowning is very serious and can be lessened if wearing a life jacket while recreating. Park rangers at Lake Berryessa have been loaning out life jackets for many years, but the newly installed stations allow for quicker and easier public access any time the day use area is open. Rangers will still be monitoring the area throughout the day, so feel free to ask them about proper use of the vests when you see them.

As a reminder, visitors should make sure they select the proper size vest:

• Small vest under 50 pounds
• Medium vest 50-90 pounds
• Large and Extra Large vests over 90 pounds

Also, visitors should connect and tie all of the straps to ensure the vest does not go over their head when in use. It is important that users return the jacket to the stand when finished, so that others can use them.

Ranger April Brackett was the project planner for our loaner stations, and she coordinated with the 60th Civil Engineering Squadron from Travis Air Force Base to have volunteers build them for the day use area. Thank you to everybody involved and thank you to the 60th CES for taking the time out of their weekend to construct these lifesaving racks.

Published on August 08, 2017