Let's Destroy a Myth

There has been a lot written about this fishing myth but I still get asked about it a lot and for good reason. The river I guide most of the time can be treacherous if you get a little adventurous. So....will wearing waders drown you if you fall in?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to falling into a river wearing waders. The first is that if you fall in and your waders fill up with water the added weight will effectively drag you down to the bottom. This is absolutely false, stop to think that the water around you is the exact same weight as the water inside your waders.
The second idea is that if you fall in the right way your waders will fill up with air and basically flip you upside down and drown you while you fight to get your head back above water. Again ridiculous, if you have seen a bad spill happen you know that this will not occur. Now, with that said its possible that if you get air in your waders it will float your legs and make it harder to get yourself righted so the only way I can see this being a problem is if you were unconscious, in which case you would drown anyhow. Sorry. One thing I do recommend to all of my clients is to wear a belt to restrict the flow of water into your waders but with that, you should burp them, that is to get into the water, take off your belt to let the air out and than put the belt back on.
For those of you still stuck on these two tales there are several good videos on youtube addressing these theories and here are a couple of them. And seriously, make sure people know where you are and how long you'll be gone.