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Subject 45's Experience

Manpreet W. – Powerboater

Manpreet loves to get out on the water whenever he can. He currently owns jet skis and a power boat, but also enjoys canoeing and kayaking.

He always ensures he is wearing his lifejacket when out on the jet skis or paddlecraft, but on boats, his wear habits are occasional. When he’s out on the boat, for pleasure or fishing, there are always lifejackets on hand, but for the most part, he’s not wearing one.

Watch Manpreet W. go through the experiences below.

Pre-Interview
Stand-Up Paddleboard
Fishing Boat
Cold Water Tank
Warm Water Tank
Post-Interview

Manpreet has had a few falls off his jet skis, usually from turning too hard or too fast, but because he always wears his lifejacket, he found it pretty easy to swim to the surface and just climb back on.

He states, “It’s not like you expect you’re going to fall off on a turn, but sometimes you take it too fast. You don’t see it necessarily coming, but you know you’re going into a turn. So subconsciously, you know, it’s always there – the awareness that you could fall off. But I never operate a jet ski without a lifejacket.”

“I feel like it’s something that could happen in real life.”

Manpreet felt the Virtual Reality (VR) experiences were pretty realistic. He didn’t expect to fall because the structure of the experiences seemed pretty sturdy, and he thought that maybe a scenario would come up in the VR which caused him to fall rather than it just suddenly and unexpectedly happening. “I feel like it’s something that could happen in real life. I've seen people fishing, they're always reaching over the side of a boat with a net or even just for the fish itself.”

“When I first fell, I was kind of disoriented, it was a bit of a shock. I couldn't tell which side was up and then it took me a second to just figure out where to go from there.”

With the dunk tanks, he knew he was going to fall in eventually, but he had no idea the second tank would be so cold because the first one was warm. He felt his breathing sped up when he fell in, and he likened the experience to when he fell off the jet ski in Lake Ontario.

Manpreet says his main takeaway from going through the experiences was the importance of wearing a lifejacket, “So that you don't get disoriented when you fall in, and you are right side up when you hit the water. I feel like that's the main takeaway because it allows you to realize that once you are not disoriented, you have a lot more mental capacity to deal with other problems at hand.”

“I feel like that's the main takeaway because it allows you to realize that once you are not disoriented, you have a lot more mental capacity to deal with other problems at hand.”