I know this is a very old post and I don’t know if any of the people involved are still here, but I have to say that waders almost killed me while trout fishing. I fell into a deep hole and the waders instantly filled with water, making it impossible to swim. I had to hold my breath as I crawled to shallow water. I barely made it.
There is a ton of YouTube videos that say otherwise. I bought a cheap pair off amazon and tried them out in the in-laws pool before I went kayakiing in them and same results, more buoyant than not. It is a different feeling and I can see how it could make some panic if they’ve never tried it before but either way, if you’re going to go with waders, test them out ahead of time so you know what you’re getting into. I’d never trust a piece of gear that I didn’t have confidence in. Going out on the water “hoping” something performs like it should just doesn’t make sense.
My experience supports this. While I was a Conservation Officer, one of our in-service training events included pool time with weighted belts (to simulate the equipment we carried), clothes we would normally wear, and either hip boots and/or waders. We tested a variety of things, including jumping it the water with waders on. While I expected them to be a problem in the water, they were not. they actually provided some flotation. Even when I jumped in feet first in a standing position, to maximize the amount of water that could go into them as I sank below the water.
I am not saying it can’t happen, but I walked away confident that it was pretty easy to deal with waders and hip boots in the water. Even with the extra weight of my equipment.
I’ve seen some of those videos on YouTube about how waders are “not dangerous” to be wearing when falling into deep water. Here’s the thing, though: Those who make that proclamation are simply ignorant about traditional waders which many people still use for cold water, and which are still used by a duck hunters and trappers (I suspect that all the people making such videos are far too young to have ever seen traditional waders if they themselves are not duck hunters or trappers). The “waders” demonstrated on those YouTube “myth-busting” videos are NOT the same as the traditional style. It’s easy to proclaim that “waders are safe” if you fall into deep water when the waders are no heavier or bulkier than a pair of rain pants, and which have “sock feet” designed to slip into a lightweight pair of water shoes, but I would dare them to try the same demonstrations with traditional waders which have a weight ranging between 10 and 15 pounds, are tremendously bulky and voluminous (one size fits all), and which include a built-in pair of very sturdy, knee-high rubber boots. Those boots by themselves would sink the average person in a hurry and negate one’s efforts to kick, but when they are attached to a ballooning structure of heavy-duty rubberized canvas, the affect on one’s flotation or swimming would be far worse.
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Most people over estimate the wind, sometimes by a lot. Twenty five miles an hour is a lot of wind to handle a boat, especially with heavy clothes and cold water. It makes sense to be more conservative in cold water or areas far from help because the consequences of a swim are much worse.
Wearing waders especially hip waders is always dangerous in a boat. Wear a life jacket which few hunters seem to want to do. Chest waders can be made to be much safer by adding a tight fitting belt across the chest to keep out water and help hold air for buoyancy.
Wind is something I get a lot of practice with. And because I have been buying and re-selling kayaks for a few years now, I have had opportunity to try about 35 (or close to that number) of kayaks, not all in heavy winds, but quite a few in windy conditions.
What you CAN deal with and what you would WANT TO deal with are usually quite different.
The amount of wind-catch a particular boat has can vary vastly from another boat. Having a rudder or a skeg makes a big difference too. And then there is current — and I have very little experience with it because I am an inland paddler so my time in currents is all in rivers and the mouths of rivers as they come into lakes. But what I do know for sure is there is no way to answer such an open-ended question accurately. The skill and power of a paddler is something that can’t be addressed is such a question. We can’t say what YOU can or can’t do. (who’s doing the paddling?)
Being out in my Old Town Loon in big waves is a real adventure and one I have come to not recommend AT ALL. 3 times now I have had it out in waves that were breaking over the combing and that gets pretty interesting when you see the boat dropping lower and lower in the water as it fills up. Bailing it out in big waves is scary because you need a hand to bail with, but you also need that same hand on the paddle to brace with too. Having 2 hands instead of 3 makes for more activity than I like. But that same amount of chop and breaking waves is fun in my Chatham 17.
I had a chance to paddle a 15 foot skin-on-frame kayak last year and it sat very low in the water. So I found it was easy to handle because so little sticks up for the wind to catch. My body was probably offering more wind-catch then the whole kayak.
I own a canoe but have only a very small amount of time in it and I have found it is NOT easy to use in winds over about 12-15 mph. I did have it in a 20 MPH wind and it’s hard to make it do what I want it to do. I got it where I wanted to go, but in about 3 times more time than I could have with any of my 3 touring kayaks. If felt like I paddles 3 miles to go each mile. A good experienced canoe paddler would have probably laughed at me , but I didn’t do very well in my attempt.
I start to want to go to shore when the breakers all come over the decks on Chatham17 and splash around my body, and when the crests are high enough to be a foot or so over the top of my head when I am in one of the troughs, but by bracing and not trying to go straight into the wind I can handle it. Having the waves hit the kayak at the bow is the easiest to stay stable in, but the hardest to make headway in. Past a certain point I just don’t have fun doing that, so I look for a place to get out.
So is that “doable”? Yes, but I don’t like to do it for very long. I enjoy chop and waves up to about shoulder height when I am seated in my kayaks, but over that I want to be in an area I can get out.
And lastly Wind direction matters. Last year I and a friend (Thor) were on Flaming Gorge for a week and one day the wind got going so all the power boats were getting off the water. We were at a place on one shore and needed to get across to the other side but the wind was coming from our 7:30 position so we went. It was a wild rodeo, but the wind was helping us not hurting us. There was enough that by paddling at a slow cadence with canted strokes we could make every stroke a semi-brace, but the wind was strong enough to give us good speed pushing on our backs. So it was just fine. As the power boats were heading in 3 of them got up close to us to ask if we needed help but we told them we were doing great. The man on one was holding on to his railing to keep from falling, but a wide flat bottom boat is not as good in such chop as a kayak. We got to the boat launch on the other side and 4 men came up to use to talk because they were all amazed at us being out there.
If we had needed to go into that wind we’d have just made camp and waited, but having it to our back somewhat, it was not difficult. It was actually great fun. Just before we launched I took out my wind gauge and it gave me a reading of 41 MPH. We paddled in that for about 2 hours and the wind laid down and was then only about 15 MPH later on. But if we’d needed to go the opposite direction we would not have even tried it. In that 2 hours I only did a 1/2 roll, one time. LOTS of bracing but other than the one time I never felt out of control.
So I think the question is too broad to give a good answer to.
Who is doing the paddling?
Where?
What boat?
What direction the wind is coming from.
Is there current and wind or just wind by itself?
How much cargo is carried?
What is the temp of the water and the air?
All these things factor in.
It is foolish to wear hip waders without a belt. My life is worth the $10 for a belt to keep water out.
With wind there is a world of difference between kayaks with a rudder and those that do not and huge difference in going into the wind while paddling or if one is able to pedal and maintain a lower profile. Kayaking with a paddle a 5 mph wind is daunting but not a problem at all when I used my Hobie pedal powered kayak.
Most of my kayaking has been in the ocean and a rudder makes a great deal of difference when I could use all my energy to drive the boat forward. Without a rudder I needed to make adjustments and often had to tack to get to my destination and expended far more energy.
A belt with hip waders will work fine as long as you are in the boat. But if out of your boat they only delay hip waders from filling with water. Traditional hip waders worn be most hunters and people fishing will weigh a ton when filled with water. A rescue with these types of waders can be very difficult.
The excuse of paddling near shore is questionable. If in an offshore wind it can be very difficult to get to shore if capsized unless you want to abandon your boat. Most swamped boats can be very difficult to tow when swimming or even with another boat. Combined with cold water and lack of cold water gear the time you have can be very limited.
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