I had canvas chest waders I left on my picnic table on the deck inside a screened in area, so they would be handy. I went to use them and mice had eaten holes in them. I should have known better as I had a set of sail ruined by mice in my garage. I just bought neoprene chest waders last month but now I wish I had waited and bought the breathable ones.
A small group of us went kayak/canoeing two days ago and I made sure the river wasn't dangerously flowing from previous rains. That can be a killer. Years ago near us, three guys in a pond were fishing in a canoe that tipped over. Two got to shore and one drown. I couldn't figure out how that could happen since he could have grabbed onto the canoe. I had a canoe at our lake cottage and decided to test out what must have been his predicament. I got out of the canoe and tried to get back in. I couldn't do it. It rolled like a barrel when I tried to get in from the sides. I tried to just hang on from the sides and couldn't because it just rolled. So I went to the end to hang on and even with the flotation it went down and I had to let go. After this experience I felt a canoe could be death trap if you couldn't swim well or in cold water where hypothermia would soon set in. The only thing I found for safely was having two people lock arms from each side of the canoe and hang on until rescued. I later talked to some canoe experts and they said you could get back into a canoe by yourself by coming up like a dolphin and kinda landing on top of it. I tried this and never could do it. Because of this experience I built my kayak with two side watertight compartments. So If I was by myself in fridged water I could partially fill the kayak with water to stabilize and lower it and swim over the edge to get in. Then paddle to shore before hypothermia put me out of business.
Below I am testing this theory out with my kayak partially filled with water.
