Diver Dave’s Wader Repairs!

It is 22 days until the brown trout season opens – I am hoping to get out after Pike fairly soon however I have a bit of a problem – my waders have a bit of an evil leak in them. Not a horrific leak or anything but certainly a couple of creepers – one is right at my crotch as well so it means that any sneaky sessions after work will be hard to explain away.

So I was looking at the price of new waders in the Sportfish catalogue that thumped through my letterbox the other day. I nearly chocked on my porridge – how much for a pair of waders? For the price of a pair of these waders I could put my car through its MOT and probably get some new brake pads (possibly)

And remember the chances of these waders actually lasting a long time are somewhere between slim and slimmer – by a long time I mean more than a couple of seasons of serious fishing. Sure my old Vision Endurance lasted a while however those bad boys had seen more aquasure than…..well someone that likes sticky stuff:

After mending my old ones at the crotch I then managed to fall over a barbed wire fence ripping big gashes down both legs – I mended them as well.

Eventually I acquired a new pair of Scierra’s from the Glasgow Angling Centre – a trade for some advertising and they have been with me for a couple of seasons – however like I say they have been leaking – I just cannot face going at them with a torch and some Aquasure – I just know it will be the beginning of the end.

However, I then learned of a certain Diver Dan who is fixing problems with waders before they even start sometimes:

For the last few years I have been repairing anglers waders. For many years I was a diver, running my own business. A large part of the business was dry suit repair, as they are very expensive and only last about 5-10 years.

However like most anglers I found myself replacing my waders every second season.

I decided to attempt to pressure test the wader’s using the same technique as I used for dry suits, and then to repair them to dive suit standards. I got a loan of all my friends waders, most of which had a leak or two and pressure tested them using compressed air. I found that they all leaked in the same places, and that the problem was always the manufacturing technique, they were simply not made to last, the seams, particularly in the crotch and feet being the common leak points. I then compared the seams of dive suits and waders and found that the taping was very poor, however this was an easy fix.

Diver Dave also has an absolute classic tag line – No one has a patch on us!

Seemingly some folk send their new waders to him to have them sealed properly to ensure they do not actually start leaking.

To cut a long story short I wrapped up my waders in a bag last week – first of all it was a white bag however someone in work told me it looked like a huge big maggot and it gave them the creeps so I swapped it for a black bag which looked less creepy however will now probably get lost in the black hole that is Royal mail.

I will keep you updated on their progress!