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A lightweight, rugged and easy-to-carry beach bag is well suited to serve a primary function as a tote for containing and transporting items useful during an excursion to a beach or other waterside location—items such as towels, swimwear, swimgear, sunscreen, snacks, drinks, reading material and the

A lightweight, rugged and easy-to-carry beach bag is well suited to serve a primary function as a tote for containing and transporting items useful during an excursion to a beach or other waterside location—items such as towels, swimwear, swimgear, sunscreen, snacks, drinks, reading material and the like. Should an emergency arise necessitating a rescue of a person in peril of drowning, the bag's contents are jettisoned, enabling a quick collapse of the bag as a chain of hinged flotation elements that form an upstanding sidewall of the bag folds in an orderly manner so the bag forms a compact, substantially flat flotation device well suited to serve a secondary function of keeping afloat the person in peril who forcefully grasps the flotation device so a rescuer can tow the person toward shore by pulling on a lengthy tether securely connected to the flotation device.

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1. A lifesaving beach bag transformable from a normally expanded configuration of the beach bag at a time after a substantially unobstructed interior chamber of the beach bag has been emptied of contents, to form a compact, substantially flat flotation device that can easily be grasped by a person i

1. A lifesaving beach bag transformable from a normally expanded configuration of the beach bag at a time after a substantially unobstructed interior chamber of the beach bag has been emptied of contents, to form a compact, substantially flat flotation device that can easily be grasped by a person in peril of drowning, with the beach bag when in the normally expanded configuration having an upstanding sidewall of substantially uniform height defined by an endless chain of substantially rectangular, vertically extending, stiff, flotation elements that perimetrically surrounds the substantially unobstructed interior chamber, and with adjacent ones of the flotation elements being pivotally coupled by hinged connections that permit selected ones of the flat flotation elements to move into a closely overly relationship one with another that substantially closes the interior chamber as the overlying flotation panels cooperate to form the compact, substantially flat flotation device. 2. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 1 with the interior chamber having a capacity within the range of one cubic foot to no larger than one and a half cubic feet. 3. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 1 including an elongate tether having one end region of the tether securely connected to a selected portion of the upstanding sidewall. 4. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 3 with the selected portion of the upstanding side wall defining a pocket formation that normally contains the elongate tether, but can be opened to permit a portion of the tether to be fed or payed out. 5. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 1 with a bottom wall of tear-resistant fabric having a periphery connected contiguously to bottom regions of the flotation elements of the upstanding sidewall. 6. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 1 with a top or cover being provided to close an upwardly facing opening defined by upper portions of the upstanding sidewall. 7. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 6 with a pair of upstanding handles connected to the upper portions of the upstanding sidewall. 8. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 7 with at least one opening formed through the top or cover that permits a handle to extend therethrough. 9. A lifesaving beach bag having an upstanding sidewall defined by an endless chain of stiff, upstanding flotation elements that normally wraps perimetrically around a substantially unobstructed interior chamber of the beach bag that, when the beach bag is in a normally expanded attitude, has a capacity within the range of a cubic foot to one and a half cubic feet, into which interior chamber items a useful during an excursion to a beach or other waterside location can be inserted through an upwardly facing opening of the expanded beach bag defined by upper regions of the upstanding flotation elements, with adjacent ones of the upstanding flotation elements being hingedly connected along substantially vertically extending lines where a pair of substantially identical overlying sheets of flexible, tear-resistant material are bonded to connect and segregate adjacent ones of a plurality of sealed compartments that each contains a different stiff, generally rectangular bat or panel of flotation material, with the beach bag additionally including a bottom wall configured to underlie the interior chamber when the beach bag is normally expanded, and to not hinder a folding of the upstanding sidewall along selected ones of the vertically extending lines once the interior of the beach bag has been emptied of contents, with the folding serving to move toward each other opposed portions of the normally upstanding sidewall to transform the beach bag to a compact flotation device that is substantially flat and can easily be forcefully grasped by a person in peril of drowning. 10. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 9 having an elongate tether with one end region of the tether fixed to the upstanding sidewall. 11. A lifesaving beach bag that, in an expanded form, has an upstanding sidewall defined by an endless chain of upstanding flotation elements, with the chain of flotation elements perimetrically wrapping an interior chamber having a capacity not greater than about one and a half cubic feet, with adjacent ones of the flotation elements in the chain having adjacent, vertically extending edge regions that are pivotally connected to thereby permit the adjacent flotation elements to move relative to each other about substantially vertically extending hinge lines so that selected ones of the flotation elements can move into overlying relationships thereby cooperating to close the interior chamber and to form a compact, substantially flat flotation device that can be grasped by a person in peril of drowning to help keep the person afloat, thereby assisting with a water rescue of the person in peril. 12. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 11 additionally including a bottom wall formed from tear-resistant material having a perimeter contiguously connected to bottom regions of the flotation elements one after the other so the bottom wall underlies the interior chamber when the beach bag is expanded. 13. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 12 with the material that defines the bottom wall being water pervious. 14. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 13 with the material forming the bottom wall having discrete openings formed therethrough. 15. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 11 additionally including a pair of handles connected at spaced locations to the upstanding sidewall and extending upwardly from the upstanding sidewall to facilitate carrying of the beach bag to transport contents that have been inserted into the interior chamber of the beach bag. 16. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 11 additionally including an elongate tether having one end region fixed to the upstanding sidewall. 17. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 16 additionally including a releasably closed pocket formation provided on the upstanding side wall near where the tether is fixed to the upstanding side wall, with the tether normally being carried inside the pocket formation and being extensible from within the pocket formation so the tether can be pulled by a rescuer toward a location of safety. 18. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 17 with the pocket formation having an opening through which the tether can extend, with a closure flap for assisting the pocket formation to normally retain a portion of the tether in the pocket. 19. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 11 with the upstanding sidewall having individual chambers that each contain a different one of the flotation elements. 20. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 11 additionally including a tear-resistant top or cover movably connected to a selected upper portion of the upstanding sidewall and configured to close an opening defined by the upstanding side wall. 21. The lifesaving beach bag of claim 11 with at least one handle connected to an exterior portion of the upstanding sidewall of the bag to facilitate the bag being carried. 22. A collapsible-expansible lifesaving beach bag that, when in a normally expanded attitude, forms an upwardly-opening portable container having an interior chamber suitable to receive, contain and transport items useful during an excursion to a location alongside a body of water, and, when in a collapsed attitude with the interior chamber emptied of contents, forms a compact, substantially flat flotation rescue device deliverable to and easily grasped by a person in peril of drowning, the beach bag comprising an upstanding sidewall that perimetrically surrounds the interior chamber which has a chamber of between one to one and a half cubic feet in size, with the upstanding sidewall being formed from an endless chain of stiff, generally rectangular, substantially flat flotation elements with adjacent ones of the flotation elements being hingedly connected along vertically extending hinge lines that enable the upstanding side wall to fold to form the compact, substantially flat flotation device, with the beach bag additionally having a flexible bottom wall that is perimetricaly connected continuously and sequentially to bottom portions of all of the flotation elements, and having a flexible top wall that can be moved between an open position providing access through a top opening of the beach bag to the interior chamber, and a closed position overlying the inner chamber and closing the top opening. 23. The beach bag of claim 22 additionally having at least one upstanding handle connected to an upper part of the upstanding sidewall. 24. The beach bag of claim 22 additionally including an elongate tether having one end region fixed to the upstanding sidewall, with the tether being extensible from the upstanding sidewall to provide a towable formation that can be pulled toward a location of safety when the beach bag is folded to form the compact, substantially flat flotation device. 25. A lifesaving beach bag defined by an interconnected set of bottom and side walls positionable in an expanded configuration of the beach bag to contiguously surround and underlie an interior, upwardly opening chamber having a volume of at least one cubic foot suited to contain and transport contents useful at a waterside location, and positionable in a collapsed configuration of the beach bag when emptied of said contents to form a compact flotation device, with said side walls including a plurality of substantially flat, stiff wall segments of flotation material that are covered by, and are flexibly and contiguously interconnected by, tear-resistant material that enable the substantially flat, stiff wall segments to extend in closely overlying relationship forming said compact flotation device when the beach bag is in the collapsed configuration, with said bottom wall defined by a sheet of flexible material that is perimetrically connected to bottom portions of the side wall, and with the flotation device having an elongate tether connected thereto.