Simple Life Saver

Your Wader Belt Can Save Your Life

6/2/05

You're wading your favorite Rocky Mountain stream. The stream is running high and fast from ice cold run off. Suddenly you lose your footing and down you go into that icy water.

You get your feet pointed downstream and keep your head up as you learned in case of an unexpected swim. But the shock of the cold water filling your waders is making it hard to breath and fast taking its toll on your ability to function normally.

Will you survive? If you can get out of the water soon, you probably will survive. But your survival chances would have increased with one simple piece of gear.

What is this simple piece of gear?

It is a non-stretchable nylon or polypropylene wading belt with a quick release buckle. The theory is that the wader belt will slow the waders filling with water and keep your exposure to cold water down to the upper part of your body.

Many of the new style belts come with a back support similar to a weight lifting belt. This back support design supports the lower back muscles making a long day on stream easier on the body.

Fortunately, many wader styles now come with a built in wader belt of some kind. These style waders offer both more safety and allow the wearer to use them as a waist wader in warm weather.

Whether you choose a wader with a built in belt or an add-on belt, I urge you to wear a belt on stream. This simple wader belt could save your life.

To be fair to the issue, Paul Arden at http://www.sexyloops.com/articles/killerwader.shtml ,"Exploding the Killer Wader Myth", tested his neoprene waders in a swimming pool to see how they reacted when full of water. This is an interesting article and worth reading. Paul also recommends wearing a wader belt just to keep cold water from reaching your toes.

While this test was done in a swimming pool, without a wader belt, I would not want to try it in 38 degree water in a river flowing at 450 or more CFS. It was was done using neoprene waders which would likely act much different than the thinner breathable waders.


Brands of wader belts.
Hodgeman about polypropylene $3.95.
Cabelas wader belts

Wright McGill Wader Belts

Tight Lines and Good Fishing,
Marshall Estes , Editor
www.fly-fishing-colorado.com
copyright 2005 by Marshall Estes and Fly Fishing Colorado