Abstract: Fatalities from hypothermia and exposure are increasing each year due to the vast popularity of paddle sports such as: kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding, etc. A lightweight inflatable self-rescue raft stored aboard with the present invention attached to the underside, can greatly reduce such fatalities. The sponge-ballast system is a stabilization system that aids a person in the water to make a quick self-rescue boarding of any lightweight inflatable raft of any size or shape avoiding fatigue and hypothermia. The system comprised of highly compressed sponge contained in permeable enclosures, which enclosures in turn are secured to the underside of an inflatable raft, which the compressed sponge, upon contact with water, rapidly absorbs water through the openings and quickly expands providing prompt, sufficient weight and ballast for a wet person to climb aboard a raft as light as 5 pounds. The present invention used 20 compressed sponges to achieve such results.

Abstract: A floatation device of any size or shape stabilized by a ballast system comprised of sponge contained in permeable enclosures, which enclosures in turn are secured to the underside of the device, which sponge, upon contact with water, rapidly absorbs such water and provides prompt, sufficient ballast.

Abstract: A floatation device of any size or shape stabilized by a ballast system comprised of sponge contained in permeable enclosures, which enclosures in turn are secured to the underside of the device, which sponge, upon contact with water, rapidly absorbs such water and provides prompt, sufficient ballast.