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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