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I’m sure there’s lots of people like me… I’m just more of a “get dressed up when it’s cold” person than a ” strip off clothes when it’s hot”.

This summer has been hot – right through June and July it’s been so hot that I’ve barely been able to get out in any of my gear. Which makes me really look forward to the winter.

We had one slightly cooled day yesterday, and I managed a quick trip to the bog, recorded in my last blog post before this one. But other than that it’s been sweltering right trought.

I tried putting on some old chest waders and filling them part way with cold water to keep cool. That didn’t really work. The water didn’t take long to warm up and started feeling a bit weird. Besides, the water is supposed to be on the outside of the waders, not inside.

I try to get up early every day – that’s the coolest part of the day. I’m talking 04:30 am. It is my favourite time of the day. Cool and quiet, no-one about. I can freely walk around the garden in my chest waders and just enjoy the feeling. Sitting in my favourite camping chair, under the tree, hot black coffee, and chest waders. It doesn’t get much better than that to be fair.

Just that come 07:30 it’s really starting to warm up any way, and got to go back to shorts and t-shirt again.

So, roll on autumn and winter. Shorter days, cold, wet, wonderful!

No photos for this one unfortunately. It was just a quick outing to the moors for a bit of exploration.

I headed out to my usual spot, donned an old hoodie, my Vass PVC safety chest waders and a pair of long yellow rubber gloves and made my way in.

After the recent hot weather and lack of rain, my main bogs had dried up. Still sinkable but much thicker mud now and really hard work to get through.

I sank waste deep into one that I hadn’t been in for a while. It was so sticky and thick. But picking up a handful of the mud and squishing it in my hands made the most wonderful sound.

Then trying to get back out of the bog was a real struggle. Feet were completely suctioned in. After a lot of digging with my gloved hands and pulling I eventually got one foot free, then the other.

I try to avoid disturbing bogs too much this time of year unless it’s wet and rainy. Churning up fresh moist mud to the air just increases the rate of drying out.

I thought to myself “there must be other bogs around here”. I currently have 3 main locations all nearby each other and f the conditions are right to create those then there must be more.

A bit of looking and exploring more than I normally would and I wasn’t disappointed. I noticed an area that was still visibly wet with small pools of water. I made my way towards it and as i did I started to sink into thick mud again.

Not wanted to get stuck this time, I got down on my hands and knees and crawled across the ground to the wet spot.

I sat up and pushed my feet through the surface. Deeper and deeper – thigh deep before I felt anything solid. Nice.

So I stood up and pushed forward feeling the ground with my feet to see if it dropped away towards the middle of the bog. Jackpot! It did. The next step I couldn’t feel solid ground any more.

I held on to a branch above me as I tried to lower my foot down while keeping the other on a solid piece of ground. Down and down and eventually felt something solid again.

By this point I was chest deep – only a coupe of inches from the top of my waders, in smooth moist mud. No too wet but not dry and sticky like the other bogs. Perfect.

With it being a fresh bog, it’s going to take a bit of work to get in shape. They always need churning / loosening up to be at their best. It’s deep, wet, secluded and easy to access. Just perfect.

I’ll return here with my camera and probably in my wading suit so I can explore even deeper.

I will keep you updated.

One of the wettest winters on record, and the moors were proving it. Not mildly wet — properly flooded, standing water across most of the flat ground with deep mud underneath. The kind of conditions where you don’t go anywhere near it without being properly covered up.

I had my full wading suit on: the Ocean Rainwear coverall, the older of the two I own. You can see in the footage that it’s had some use — there’s a patch on the knee and the logo is mostly cracked away. It still keeps me dry. That’s the only thing I need it to do.

The setup

This was before I’d invested in any decent camera equipment, so I had two old action cameras — cheap little things, sealed in waterproof cases. One clipped to the front of the suit for a chest-level view, the other on a GorillaPod set close to ground level and pointing at a wide, deep muddy puddle. The cases do exactly what they’re supposed to in terms of keeping the water out, but they swallow most of the audio in the process. The footage from this day looks like what it is: a wet lens, murky visuals, the occasional muffled splash where there should be a proper squelch. Not ideal for the kind of sound work I want to do now, but it was the right kit for the budget at the time.

The moors themselves looked exactly the way they do in the middle of winter. Bare trees, bare ground, no vegetation worth mentioning, and the wind and rain doing their thing. There’s a stretch of this area that the local 4×4 off-road group use regularly, and in winter they tend to leave it in a state: tyre ruts, churned-up surface, standing water sitting over very soft mud. It looked rough and it was. It also made for a much better morning than a pristine dry field would have.

Into the mud

With the camera in position I didn’t have to go far before I was knee-deep. I found a good spot at the edge of the puddle and knelt down into it properly — the mud below the water line gives slowly when you push into it, and then the water closes back over your hands.

The suit has rubber gloves attached at the cuffs, which matters here. You can push your hands into the mud without anything getting under your fingernails or running up your sleeves, and there’s no reason to hesitate before doing it. I know it probably looks like a strange thing to do. Kneeling in a muddy puddle on a freezing morning isn’t most people’s idea of a good time. But there’s a very specific satisfaction to it: outside is rough and wet and cold; inside the suit you’re warm and dry. That contrast doesn’t really change, no matter how many times you do it.

From kneeling I moved to sitting properly in the puddle — legs out in front, arms in to the elbows. Settled in for a while.

I’d also buried a small bag of Lego figures in the silt before setting the camera up. Pushed them in and then had to find them again by feel, sifting through the mud by hand. It adds something to do and gives the hands-in-mud element a purpose beyond just sitting there. Whether it comes through on camera is another matter — with old kit in rain, on a murky day, it mostly didn’t. But the point isn’t really the footage.

The suit

The Ocean Rainwear coverall I’m wearing in this video is the most-used of the two. The knee patch has been there a while. The branding is mostly decorative at this point. I’ve had a few holes in the gloves over the years and sealed them with Storm Shore flexible sealant — a small blob over the hole, leave it to cure, done. The suit itself is still completely waterproof.

Winter on the moors: bare trees, torn-up ground, rain on the lens. None of it is welcoming. I want to go back.

Welcome. This is the first post, so let me tell you what this place is.

This is a place for my life in waders — bog walks, atmospheric mornings out, and the everyday done fully kitted out. I love the gear, I won’t pretend otherwise, but what I want to share here is where it takes me: sometimes deep into a bog, mud to the chest, washing off in the river afterwards; sometimes just pulling on a pair of chest waders to do something completely ordinary, and seeing how the day goes.

You won’t see my face here. That’s rather the point — full-coverage gear is total presence and zero identity, and I like it that way.

Today is, by all accounts, the hottest day of the year. Which is exactly the sort of day you’d think waders would stay in the cupboard. They didn’t.

4:30 in the morning

I’m up at 4:30 every morning. It’s the best part of the day — quiet, cool, completely still, and the only time I get properly focused. It’s also, conveniently, the only sensible window to put on chest waders when the afternoon is going to be brutal. So that’s what I did: a bit of focused work, and a cool, peaceful early start in full kit before the heat arrived.

Setting up shop on the hottest day

There’s a certain irony to it: I registered lifeinwaders.com and got the hosting set up today, of all days — the hottest day of the year. Call it fate. The site will run on WordPress, and this post is the very first thing on it.

I’m down in Cornwall, which means it’s a touch cooler here than most of the country right now — but only a touch. It’s still going to be a hot one.

This morning’s gear

I reached for my go-to pair: a well-worn set of Vass safety chest waders. They’re the older style — dark olive green with bright yellow straps and proper industrial safety boots. By a long way my favourite pair. I’ve worn them so much I’m honestly not sure I’d trust them in deep water anymore; I suspect there are a few holes by now. But the material is lovely — flexible, properly hard-wearing, and they just feel right to wear. Years ago I put a set of fairly expensive insoles in them, and they’ve held up beautifully.

Underneath, just thermal leggings — which sounds mad in this heat, but it’s actually a fairly cool combination, and it’s what works for me.

Staying cool in waders when it’s 30 degrees

Wearing chest waders on a day like today is, I won’t pretend otherwise, a bit of a struggle. But there’s a trick: spray them down with a bit of water and the whole thing cools right off. I’m planning to try exactly that later, once the day really heats up — I’ll report back on how well it holds.

That’s the idea of this place, really: the days out — the ordinary ones and the muddy ones — and sharing how they actually go. There’s a lot more coming — clips, photos, and plenty more mornings like this one.

Stick around.