Tamati Rhind loves heading out on the water and now with his new lifejacket he has peace of mind he'll be safe if he ever gets into trouble.
Mr Rhind was one of more than 100 people who went along to Coastguard New Zealand's Old4New Lifejacket Upgrade campaign which came to Rotorua on Saturday.
He said he thought it was a good opportunity to trade in old life jackets, as well as buy one for his 2-year-old son.
Mr Rhind said he went out on the water as often as he could, going to the ocean for fishing and out on the lakes cruising around to hot water beaches.
He said the previous life jackets were just old and the family wanted to have peace of mind by having new life jackets. The new ones were also quite a bit smaller so you could do more with them.