Unfortuneatly I've come across 6 river fatalities over the years. And, in my experience, most if not all, may have been avoided - human errors.

Whitewater derserve every possible bit of respect and I think waders, although not "proven mechanisms" of death are not a wise choice of gear.

Anything that may hinder an ability to self-resue should be seriously examined.

But yes, I agree to disagree.

RE: the scenario I first mentioned. I was the first responder, am familiar with the events leading up to...but cannot speak to them being fact.

Boat safely!

 

Boat safely!

I recon another point is that fisherman should also wade more safely. Every wading fatality that I've read about was caused by someone cutting corners with their own safety (not knowing the risks, how to effectively self rescue, simply wearing appropriate footwear, wading with a staff, etc.) or simply being ignorant to the risks they were exposing themselves to.

Every time I step into a run I ask myself how I'm going to get out if I fall in. There's plenty of times I've stepped away from water that I know is holding fish because I don't feel safe due to current speed, a log jam, slippery rocks, whatever. At the end of the day though, I'm mostly on the water as a fisherman, and will continue to wear waders whilst I row me boat.

 

I've been wading in rivers for 40 years. While it's easy to dismiss a quaint scene with the innocent rube fisherman, entirely unaware of the imminent danger that lurks- many fishermen are expert river readers and highly skilled at managing current while afoot. If you do something for that long, on a regular basis- you well understand the risk and the skill necessary to do it safely. I'll trade a PFD for a wading staff any day- because there is no inherent danger in waders as long as they're not loose at the top and a wading belt is worn. If you add a PFD you're every bit as safe as a kayaker who's blown out of their boat or a rafter who's gone over the side. That's what the research, evidence and FACTS have shown after repeated study and review. This has been studied and reported on for decades in the fishing community- just take the time to look and you will see that the evidence is legion to support these two key elements- cinch the top and wear a belt. There has never been a credible study of the safety of waders that showed inherent danger- only hollow speculation and assumption like we've seen here for the umpteenth time.

 

I have never worn waders .It sounds like if worn properly they usually work well . The operative word is USUALLY. I wore a dry top with paddlepants that have a neoprene waist band that functions as a semi gasket and just velcro ankle closures for hundreds of runs duckying and kayaking. Never had much of a problem swimming just a little leakage. Then i went for a swim in 4 + ish water once and water leaked in over the waist band and didn't drain through the ankle cuffs filling up the pants with water . I don't care what anyone says ,pants filled with water hinder your ability to move well . You don't sink per se and maybe in deep calm water you can swim easily but you can't manouvre as well and it is a bitch to do a pull up on a boulder or steep bank to get out with weights on your legs. I continued to use the set up with ankle cuffs slightly loosened but am definitely conscious of the possibility of that problem. Got a dry suit but if it got a big hole somehow the same could happen. Waders seem like the problem would happen more often,if you wear 'em cinch everything up good.

Once we f'd around on a Smith Fork side hike. We were playing in the bad sieve , at low water it is a small falls into a plunge pool. I was sliding down a log when my wet suit shoulder strap snagged on a broken branch and the waterfall poured inside the suit filling it. I call it my Michelin Man incident , no harm done but it could be disasterous in another situation. Any set up could fail under certain circumstances,waders seems like you are asking for it.

 

Foolish Fisherman Gets Flushed in Cataract Canyon - YouTube

It took 3 people to pull this guy out of the water with the drag of his waders.

 

It took 3 people to pull this guy out of the water with the drag of his waders.[/QUOTE]

Do you think that this guy made a few bad decisions other than what kind of pants he had on? He is truly lucky to be alive. Certainly a good example of the sort of self confidence that gets people in trouble every day. He even says it in the quote on youtube. He was feeling confident in his rowing skills so he decided to run Cataract in a pontoon boat designed for fishing. Sounds like he took a good maytag ride and hopefully now he is keeping the pontoon boat for the flatwater.

 

cayo, that's a pretty interesting story. thanks. with that in mind, it would be interesting to test the filled waders/ drowning theory in heavily aerated water. in that situation, the settled water in the waders would actually be heavier per square foot than the super aerated stuff in heavy whitewater. Yes? i'm just thinking out loud. feel free to shoot holes in it, folks.

 

If a drysuit zipper somehow partially opened then jammed ,could get way ugly....even if it didn't jam, the more you open it the more water gets in....pee zipper as a drain ?. .. it would be hard to zip/unzip while swimming... could maybe deliberately tear ankle gaskets in desperation ....yeah they make em hard to come unzipped and zipper tab should be secured under the elastic strap [ at least on my Kokatat ] ... double checking gear is important ,the time you forget to do something could be the time it matters... just thinking out loud...

 

Dry bibs and waders aren't the same thing. Dry bibs have ankle gaskets, water-tight stitching, and a neoprene banded skirt that rolls together with the inner skirt on a proper dry top to form a system that's almost as reliable as a dry suit.

The two piece is a handy option, but I like to keep in mind that any system, even the best dry suits, can still flood if a zipper gets pulled or the fabric tears in the chaos of serious carnage. Therefore, I always carry a knife in case I need to cut open my own pants at the shin.

 

Also the article was written in the context of using a boat to fish. . . not whitewater boating.