90 days at the Wexford test centre

With close to 90 days of saltwater guiding ahead of me for the summer season of 2011 its essential that I wear the right gear. Right in a way that allows me to do the job without having to consider getting cold wet and uncomfortable no matter what the conditions – If I’m any of those things when I am guiding then its going to reflect negatively on your experience.

Standing up to 90 days of walking, wading, crawling, bending, lifting, stretching is no mean feat – add in rain, sand, rocks, barnacles, sun and saltwater and it can get very demanding indeed.

Lets say during a normal days guiding I spend 10 hrs. working in my jacket boots waders and under wader wear – so for my normal guiding season that's coming close to a 1000 hrs.

I don’t need gear that’s not going to last, perform or be unreliable. There are of course some constraints on the technology and I need to exercise some degree of care with my waders – there are physical limits as to what they can withstand, in other words I don’t expect them to be thorn or barbed wire or sharp rock resistant but I do expect them to be breathable and waterproof.

My jacket needs to be breathable waterproff and windproof and my boots need to be light and secure whilst provided good grip in what can be a multitude of different environments.

At the end of a long season its hard to say goodbye to old friends