Waders Danger question

"Tom Nakashima" wrote in message
...
Just curious, what happens if one accidentally gets in too deep and your
waders fill up with water?
I haven't been there yet, but it's crossed my mind if it happens. Sounds
like it could be a dangerous situation....not a great swimmer here.

I'll also pick up an wading staff from what I've been reading here, that
ski
pole sounds like a great idea.

-tom


I just heard that a friend of mine recently was in a drift boat that took a
huge roller over the bow, swamped the boat, and threw all 3 people in the
boat out. My friend was wearing waders, without a wading belt. He tried to
swim to shore but his waders filled with water and he went down. luckily,
one of the other passengers was not wearing waders and had made it to shore.
She saw my friend in trouble and swam out and got him ( for some distance
below the chute the water turns into a deep slow moving pool). Apparently
they lost the boat, all their gear, and damn near cost my friend his life.
I'm starting to think seriously about the Sospenders and I'm much more
cognizant of wearing my wading belt.

I know the stretch of water they were on, its fairly flat and calm with no
real challenges to even a beginner boatsman, except for one chute between a
couple of rock walls that isn't much more than one boat length (if you
recall the eagle sighting I reported earlier this year it was exactly the
same float probably less than a month before this happened.)-. Somebody
drowns there every year. The stupid thing is, there is a takeout maybe 400
yd. above the chute and one just below the chute.

jh