He Made His Own Waders!

where did i get all these waders there's old canvas and rubber neoprene breathables hip boots they're my old hunting waders and they represent over 35 years of duck hunting and searching for the perfect waiter have i found it well stick around i'm joel strickland and this is surviving duck season why in the world did i keep all these things thanks for watching survive and duck season where we feed your waterfowl obsession and help you to maximize your hunting experience now today i'm going to be telling you about my journey with waders over the past 30 some odd years trying to find the perfect waiter and i have an incredible story of one guy who was so fed up with horrible waiters he created his own and then a little later i'll have some tips for you on best practices and getting the most out of your waders but before i get into the video i wanted to answer a question that many of you have asked and that is when's high and dry gonna have more waders to sell well in the last few days i've been told that high and dry has inventory so if you want some high and dry waders you'd better go to their website quick links in the description this video is sponsored by high and dry waiters and i'm very grateful to them for supporting this channel and providing a great product i'm very particular about the products and companies that i do talk about on this channel and when i work with a company they know that i'm gonna just tell it like it is i don't accept money from a company just to say nice things about them or tow the company line you won't hear me tell you that a product is hands down the best now the truth is what's best for me may not be best for you the way i hunt where i hunt my abilities and experience and price all play into my choices and i know it's the same way for you waiters they're a love-hate relationship with me i'm sure many of you would say the same thing when i first started duck hunting we didn't have many options but as technology has improved my expectation has gotten a lot greater and for the last six or seven years i've been on a quest to find that perfect waiter is there such a thing well what would make the perfect pair of waders for you let me know in the comments also if you've used high and dry tell me about your experience i bet y'all would be pretty surprised to know a little of the history of waiters have you ever heard of hodgman waiters well they're credited with inventing waiters all the way back in 1838 not 1938 1838 it's true then they patented them in the 1850s now i'm not going to spend a bunch of time on all this but as i looked through some of the old patents i found it very interesting how things were improved with rubber and canvas waders over the 18 and 1900s a while back i was looking for something in my storage building and i discovered some of my old waders that i had kept over the years honestly i can't believe how many waiters that i still had it's kind of ridiculous i mean why would i have all of those unusable waders dry rotted leaky torn i've got the answer i kept them all these years for you and this video okay it's my story i'm sticking to it but today i'm going to show you the progression that i've seen in technology throughout my lifetime because although waiters have been around for over 180 years they really haven't changed all that much except in the last 30 years i wish i had my first pair of waders to show you they were very similar to that pair right there but they weren't camouflaged just dark brown now that pair was likely my second pair of waders canvas and rubber i always took a change of clothes in those first several years of wearing those type of waders because i always fell down in the water every single time i wore them it was very difficult to walk in them and i was this little scrawny dude back in the day these are hip boots they were probably some of the most comfortable waders to wear at the time if the water wasn't too deep i wore them quite a bit i remember my first pair of neoprene waders they changed my life i could actually walk easily in them without falling and they were much warmer too they were pretty thin and they fit very tight like a wetsuit they had no protective coating on the outside of them and i'm sure they only lasted one season i remember them being ripped to shreds the idea was great just not very durable for hunting in those early days there were guys that would wear coveralls over the top of their neoprene waders just to protect them trash bags and duct tape were my friend if you got a hole in your waders you just fixed the leak as best you could and then bagged your legs up as the years went on different companies added protective coverings to the neoprene and some even added fleece or other materials for warmth while these improved things a lot the trade-off was it made them stiffer heavier and harder to walk in in about 2006 maybe i was at the shot show and saw hodgman had some camouflage breathable waders they looked so thin and fragile i thought to myself there's no way those would last five minutes with me hunting in them breathables were probably okay for fishing but i actually never saw a series hunter wearing breathables till about maybe 2013. i think i got my first pair of breathables in 2015 and over the next three years i went through seven pairs of waders they were all terrible i'd get a week or two out of them and then wet i've tried lots of brands the worst was banded i went through two pairs in a week in the summer of 2018 i was introduced to brian terry of high and dry i was told his story of how he'd been looking for the perfect waiter too and after trying them all and being let down he built his own brian was not a guy who was trying to make a product to sell he was trying to save money for his business and help his employees you see he's a fourth generation waterman from the eastern shore of virginia spending more than 300 days a year in the water harvesting clams and oysters it's the toughest environment there is that requires using waders so this is where the story of high and dry all started huh so where we're standing right here right now is the clan capital of the world there are more farm-raised clams produced in this town of willis wharf than anywhere else in the world i've spent many days with brian and his crews on the clam and oyster beds and saw firsthand the harsh conditions and the way those guys abuse their waders when we're out trying to work in a commercial environment it is some of the harshest conditions in the world that we put ourselves through i asked brian before he started building waders which ones did he try we have literally tried every single brand of waders on the market from neoprene to breathables every style every brand and can't find anything that will last in a commercial environment so after years and years of getting the exact same results of leaky waders leaky scenes a failed product we needed something better i took it upon myself to go and build a better tool to allow us to do our job so we scoured the globe we learned everything there was to learn about a pair of chest waders we did not have any boundaries on where we would go what we would do to find the best of everything they pioneered new technologies and methods and went several steps further than other companies were willing to do and created the world's first industrial grade waiter we over engineered we over designed we over built to have a product that could withstand the abuse that we put them through in a commercial environment over built with high quality fabric limited seams advanced seam sealing technology and kevlar protection on the front of the waiter they're made to work in all day and be comfortable he wasn't building waiters to make a profit he was building them to work for him it was such a fascinating story to me brian told me that he had many of his duck hunting friends wanting to buy their waiters it was at that time he partnered with a lifelong friend ian mcnair and they made waders available to everyone high and dry was born you cannot come to the eastern shore of virginia and not have a local delicacy this is a wild oyster growing right here in the salt flats of hog island bay this is a freshly shucked home-grown mother's nature's best wild seaside oyster and and i've told you that i don't do raw i know you don't but it's okay okay today you do we're gonna take this uh i've already i've already shucked the oyster the the oyster has one inductor muscle which is right here i've already cut that loose from the shell so your oyster is free and ready to be slurped down slurp down you hold yours i'll hold mine i'm gonna watch you do yours so i think this is what you do hold it right here delicacy it's great he does roll that wasn't that bad i mean honestly [Laughter] brawl is good yeah the salty thing is like it's yeah it's the flavor yeah that is good flavor after talking with brian and ian i agreed to wear their waders for an entire season to see what i thought and give them feedback so after just a few outings i knew that they were the best pair of waiters i had ever worn the quality was very evident in their construction and they're definitely tough were they perfect not perfect but still better than anything i'd ever worn so what's wrong with them not necessarily wrong just preference i'm not a fan of their shoulder straps i'm just not i'd rather have something that's not like the snap buckles something a little bit more streamlined it's definitely not a deal breaker for me i mean the waiters fit and they're comfortable and they don't leak with a price tag of 339 dollars that's less expensive than all the other companies high dollar leaky waiters and a third of the price of their only real competitors i'm tough on my gear and i normally walk about four to six miles a day in waders with the hunting that i do in scouting through all types of vegetation through the woods i hunt about 80 days a year and i'm going into my fourth season and i've yet to have a waiter fail from my high and dry waders okay as promised here's some tips for waders get a set of boot dryers and use them every time you're finished hunting in your waders i tend to sweat in mine and so if you put them in there after a few hours your waiters will be all dried out then they're not going to be wet the next time you put them on number two if you hunt in a cold climate buy a size too big and then add an insole i started doing this several years ago i like the georgia boot insoles but there's a lot of other really good insoles out there then i wear one thick pair of high quality wool socks like darn tough make sure that your feet are not too tight and then you won't freeze if you take your waders off like this then when you're ready to put them back on it just takes a few seconds and you're ready to go it's especially helpful when wearing neoprene which takes a little longer to put on if you have leaky waders no matter what brand they are get a product called 3m 5200 or 4000 uv also made by 3m make sure you get the fast cure because it will be ready to go overnight in my experience it works way better than aquaseal and all the other products that are made specifically for waders i'll leave some links in the description for you should you wear neoprene or breathable waders well wear neoprene waders if you hunt all morning in belly button deep water and it's cold otherwise wear breathables and layer up if you miss my video on layering check it out right here i'm joel strickland god bless you and i'll see you on the next video

Channel: Surviving Duck Season

Views: 42,631

Keywords: Duck Hunting, Goose Hunting, Waterfowl Hunting, Duck Season, high n dry wader review, high n dry waders, wader review 2021, banded waders review, sitka waders, sitka wader review, drake waders, frog togg waders, Drake Waders, banded waders, joel strickland duck hunting, joel strickland, Surviving Duck Season, duck hunting tips, duck hunting gear, waders that don't leak, best waders for fishing, best waders for duck hunting, Made his own waders, Best Duck hunting waders

Id: LSSojkiUUXk

Length: 14min 44sec (884 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 28 2021