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. 

Where it all happens

I had a busy week and the fact that I had a busy week coupled with the fact that I did not take my computer to New York City with me in the middle of the week means my blog suffered.  With great hopes of updating my wish list and putting up three new posts last week, but what I did is just sad. In an effort to start this week out right I am doing another OBN prompt.  This time it is a photo prompt so here is the photo tour of where I write my blog.  Since I am letting pictures do the talking (and the captions) I will let you know that this week I plan to do better then last.

This is my desk, where I can write, tie flies, and a lot of other things.  There is a window facing the woods on my right, and the room has all my rods, guns, knives, and anything else outdoor related.  

 

 

 

This is a better shot of everything right after I set it up for the first time.  

-Bruce

Outfitted for life

OBN's writing prompt this week is actually something I addressed in my very first post.  I decided before just linking to my old post and calling this an easy one I would read the post.  Now that I read it I think I will do more then just link to it.

Outfitted For Life:   Outfitted for Life, the name came from Sarah (my wife), and it took only minutes of thinking about it for me to jump on board with that name. I love it for many reasons, the biggest of all the reasons is the fact that it leaves me lots of room to work with.  The room to do more then just fishing post is still very appealing to me.  I like sharing my hikes, and hope to get back to hunting.  Also want to try some new sports such as bouldering, long distance hiking, and maybe even buy a mountain bike someday. 
 

So the story that came to mind in that first post was one of my bother and I getting ready for a hunt.  I have not told as many stories as I want to but going back and looking at why I picked the title I think I will try to tell more old stories.  Here is that first story of why the title Outfitted for Life was a good choice.

This story was the first that came to mind when the title of the blog was made final. It takes me back to high school, it was the first hunting season I could drive. My parents okayed my brother and I to go hunting alone for what I think was the first time. We planned to hit a spot we hunted small game, and later on in our hunting adventures became a great waterfowl spot. Well we were packing up the guns and mom was giving us the be safe, look out for each other, and if your going to be late call speech. My mom looked us up and down, she cracked a half a smile and said well boys you look the part, and then wished us luck as we ran to the car guns, ammo and packs in hand. Between the two of us we were geared to the max for a small game hunt, I guess ever since then I've always tried to look the part if nothing else........ I try to go into every situation especially when it comes to the outdoors "looking the part". Looking the part now there is one of the first lessons if you want to be outfitted for life.   

I still often look the part, whether I mean too or not it just kind of happens now.  Looking back on this and a couple other old posts I have come to realize that my writing, and my stories are getting better.  In an strange way I am really starting to look the part of a blogger, and that is funny on many levels.  Well there you have it that is where Outfitted for Life came from and who knows where it will go.  

-Bruce