William Joseph WST waders part 1

Love the logo

I finally understand why people spend a lot of money on waders.  I have never spent a lot of money on waders and thanks to OBN and the connections they have, I did not need to spend any on these .  A short history of my wader past can be summed up quickly I started with rubber waders, and that was followed by my first pair of neoprene waders.  Neoprene waders are relatively cheap and since my brother and I fished, hunted and trapped in the PA winters they kept me warm.  When the summers would roll around I would slip on my rubber hip boots and they would do the trick for the summer months.

Some real excitement in the air when I open a box of new gear!

Now my eyes have been opened thanks to these William Joseph WST waders and OBN.  There is another world of waders out there, not rubber, not neoprene but some fabric that keeps water out but still breaths.  It is early in the season and if these waders would not be new I would probably still be using the neoprene for warmth.  The fact is they are still new and I was very excited to give them a go.  The day they showed up I grabbed my new 3wt rod and took off to a small stream.

Sometimes I swim Against The Current

These waders are wonderful they breath very well.  I had jeans on under them and the truth is I felt like I was wearing only jeans.  Yes they kept me dry while I fished that is what waders should, but big question is did they pass the "Bruce test"?   Well I had a chance to try them out on some small streams in CT in the past two or three weeks and they have held up well thus far.  I picked two streams that offer two different challenges.

The honest truth is I fished the hole before staging some photos.

The one stream has large rocks and boulders that are tough on the knees of most waders.  These WST waders have reinforced knees and the inseams are cut in such a way that you have full range of motion for climbing and crawling over large boulders.  The other stream had a lot of sticker bushes, and some very deep wades. The stickers did not grab the material and did not poke holes in it either.  Then there was some of the areas where my only option was to wade through some very deep water and these waders did great.

Do they look convincing?

The inspiration for the name WST is the most interesting function of these waders.  WST actually stands for Wader Safety Technology, and this is an intigrated floatation device.  If you use waders a lot you have probably slipped and fell but 9 times out of 10 you just stand up and have some water in your waders.  These waders are equipped for that one time when you can not stand up or the current grabs you and take you down stream fast.  If you find yourself underwater or being swept down stream there is an air bladder around the chest of these waders that is filled by a Co2 cartrage.  Here is the situation you are on a river you have never fished before and you step onto a rock that is very slippy and fall in over you head.  You are underwater and the current is pushing you down stream and water is filling in your waders but lucky you are wearing WST waders.  You simply find the red rip cord and pull like you life depends on it (and if you were in this pickle it would depend on it), the Co2 gets punctured and the bladder fulls with air and you float to the surface.

Sorry it got blurred because I tried to zoom this one after the fact.

To sum it all up the William Joseph WST waders are a great pair of waders.  Comfortable, breathable, with a full range of motion, and the Wader Safety Technology for peace of mind.  If you are not the kind of person to spend your money on waders, maybe this will be the pair you finally break down and buy.  Not only will you be buying a great pair of waders, but you will be buying peace of mind for that one unfortunate time you go under.

My only advice for waders and wader boots is about size chats and buying online.  Both waders and wader boots have size charts that are made with some kind of math equation that has to do with height, weight, eye color, and month you were born.  This equation is not always reliable so my advice it to go to an outfitter and try them on first.  If you can not find the exact waders you are going to buy online at least try on the same brand so you understand how the sizes run(for these particular waders I would say to buying a size bigger then your first thought). 

Took this by accident but I kinda like it.

Okay so there is one thing left to do, I want to truly test the WST system.  This summer I will jump into my in-laws pool and test the rip cord.  This is why I titled this post William Joseph WST waders part 1 because part 2 will be a video post of me using these waders in a pool.

OH yeah did I mention that you can really look the part when you wear quality gear, and that it outfitted for life!



Disclaimer:
The William Joseph WST waders were given to me free of charge for field testing and reviewing.  The thoughts and opinions above are my own with no outside influences.