CHRISTIANA WIENS | SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN Wader quest ver the last 30 years I’ve spent thousands of dollars, most of them hard-earned, on waders, At the outset of this quest for a decent pair of rubberized pants, ] was able to swap wages for a product that lasted a few seasons, but in the last 10 years the life expectancy of waders has decreased! dramatically. In the outdoors uf Yore there were no designer colours: no teal, or magenta, no sir, Back in the Jurassic Age of out- door clothing, there was red and there was green. For the flamboyant, there was plaid. It was a time when woolly underwear roamed the earth, a halcyon age, when “pile” was a verb or noun used to describe a heap of leaves or dung; a time when fishers were rodents, when men and the few women that shot and hooked things were all fishermen. And, all of them struck out into the woods wearing hats, shirts, socks, and pants built from the shavings of sheep. For the fishermen of this time Miner chest waders were the rubber pants du jour. Miners were as tough and inflexi- ble as bad bosses. Almost everyone wore miners because they, or waders like them, were what the outdoor stores stocked, , Miners came in a drab brown box. Opening one an event. ‘After cutting the tape, fishermen unwrapped the light weight, brown paper exposing the new boots and releasing a fragrant amalgam reminiscent of old gui boot and new For a reason known only to their manufacturer, the waders were lightly dusted in odourless talc. Perhaps to - leave the impression that the boots had been babied during their fabrication, Under the waders lay a rugged pair of blue suspenders with metal wire ends, which were to be fastened to big metal buttons located at the wader tops. After a year of heavy use these buttons fell like fall leaves. At the end of their lives Miners were commonly suspended from the - shoulder by threadbare suspenders attached to a button pair or threaded trough holes where the metal buttons were once. ; There were no belt loops on Miners. They came with unfelted and unstudded boots attached, which really didn’t matter ail that much because, like zoot pants or the jeans of skate boarders, we wore them “loose and dangerous”. Beddecked in Miners we made those macho wades that young men make, slipping through strong currents, our feet skating over the slippery boulders, staffless, water lapping ; at our waists, A friend intrigued by weights and measures, once told me he’d reckoned miners could hold about 200 pounds of water. Having broken a shower curtain rod by hanging a * water-filled pair of miners from it while on a quest for pin hole leaks, I knew they had a lot of capacity, but I didn't realize they couid hold that much. This meant, said my calculating angler buddy, that being » Swept downstream in a pair of miners was akin to being : carried off with a pair of mid-sized anvils lashed to your » legs. After that waming, [ started cinching belts, then later, * bungee cords around my waist, but I knew that neither belt ; Nor bungee would keep much water out of the legs of my - Miners in the event of a spill. Added to this danger was the fact that Miners moved when we moved, but reluctantly. Wading in Miners meant a wresiling match with both water and waders. The same ; ititating infexibility made every other exertion more diffi- cult too. A bush whack in miners left you hot, stinking, ‘ tired, and weakened before the next power wade. Clambering through a clear cut was a feat fit for iron men. The NeoWading Age arrived when we got neoprene as diving pear dominated the wading industry, Neoprene was too hot in summer, too cold in winter, because it was tight it was even more movement resistant than Miners, and it proved hard to patch. Neoprene was expensive junk thal soon timed to sponge. It had one redeerning feature: it floated, After blowing serious coin on half a dozen pairs of neo- prene waders, I went back to a style of wader I'd filited with once in the past. These were called Seal Dris, A seem- ’ less; loose-fitting, stocking-footed, body condom of a wader manufactured by a company of poor spellers with a surplus of Jatex rubber. Pete Broomhail, whose legs are considerably longer than those of mos! sportsmen, alerted me ta Seal Dris. In order to become a leggy superwader, Pete sheared the slockings from the waders then glued the remainder to a pair of felt- ed gum boots, a brilliant idea soon emulated by Pete's fly- fishing buds in the Totems. Doctored Seal Dris had more flex and were easy to * patch, something that had ta be done often as they could ' be cut by brushing up against a sharp blade of grass. ‘To | prevent lacerations it was necessary to wear rain pants : which meant yet another pair of suspenders to be quickly > taken off when one had to pee. Ultimately, sun light broke ‘ * down the fragile latex and thie Seal Dris rotted. Next week ....the quest for good rubber contiues,: top of Terrace’s medal count. | _. Barton clocked..in with six persanal-best swims in the 400 and 200-metre IM, the 100 and 200-metre freestyle swim, the 100-metre breast- stroke and the 200-metre butterfly: According to the last national rankings, taken last year, the [4-year-old swimmer ranks 32nd for her 200-metre butterfly: She also ranks 30th for. her part in the Tegio-: nal 4x50-metre medley:team and 35th ‘in. the 4x5(-metre freestyle team. Barton also squeaked into 48th position on the 15- 17-year old girl s regional 4x50-metre medley team: - Tristan Brown, 16, won two races ~ the 100- : metre medley and the 50-metre butterfly for his age group, Those races also ‘represent Brown's best ever times in those events. He ranks 34th in TERRACE STANDARD SPORTS — Blueback swim team wins big in Prince George THE TERRACE Blueback swim team are get- ting better all the time with six nationally-ranked swimmers and four gold medalists at the Fall In- vitational Swim Meet in Prince George Nov. 17. With three golds, four silvers and one fourth- place finish, Jenine Barton'swam her way to the. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 1, 1999 - 87 relay team with his brother Greg, style’ event. 100-metre butterfly event, metre freestyle relay, team. @ Heading your way! Watch out, here comes Rajan Sangha working his way through a soccer drill at Centennial Christian School November 27. Sangha was one of many six to eight-year-old players (mostly boys) showing off their fancy footwork and improving their soccer skills at the Satur- day clinics taught by Nick Kolias, a local soccer enthusiast and li- censed coach. Besides having a lot of fun, the boys learned better passing, dribbling, shooting and receiving skills. Terrace teams sweep local badminton tourney MORE THAN 30 players from five north- west communities battled for gold at the Terrace Open Doubles Badminton Tour- nament at Thornhill Elementary School Nov, 20. Terrace’s Karen Resch and Mary Louise Crespo took first place in the la- dies “A” flight championships, - while Carol Mackenzie of Hazelton and Hester Flewin of Prince Rupert took silver. ° In the men’s “A” flight competition, - Norm Parry of Terrace and-Smithers’ Ton. Cook beat aut Al Davies and Dan Tuomi, also of Smithers, to win the champion- ship. Terrace’s Dan Kovacs and Don Hill won the “B” flight competition. In mixed doubles, Mary Louise Crespo and Norm Parry, president of the local club won first place over Surinder Dhali- whal and Hester Flewin. _ Dan-‘Fuomi and Karen Resch took the “B”-flight: competition while Al Davies and Bary! McLelland ¥ won second. the national rankings with teammate Kyle Narzt on the regional 4x50-metre medley relay team. Narat ranked 29th nationally for his 100- “metre backstroke, and 22nd for his 200-metre backstroke performances. last season. He is ranked 35th in the 4x50-metre. freestyle regional ~At 18, Greg Narzt is‘one of the club’s more ‘senior swimmers. He proved he’s stilt i improving by winning two silver medals in the 100-metre medley’ (a personal best) and the 400- metre free- Also® making. it to the podium in Prince George was 16-year-old Kaya Downs, who won the 100-metre medley and placed third i in-the Downs is ranked 49th nationally on the 4x50- Allison Knoédler won three bronze medals in Prince George, a preat effort considering the concentration the 10-year-old swimmer needed to compete in Prince George’ s 50-metre pool. She also clocked i in with two best ever times Sons 5-2, 638-7283 in the $0 and 100-metre breaststroke events. Evan Palahicky, 13, easily won the i00-metre « breaststroke in Prince George even though his 1:15:37 time was almost a: full second olf: his personal best 1:14:55 swim, The 100-tnetre breaststroke is Palahicky’ 5 spe- cialtyas. the 13-year-ald swimmer is now ranked fifth nationally for his performances last year. He also ranks L-1th with Scott: Vanderlee for his per- formance:in the 4x50 medley relay last year. Now swimming in an older age group Pala- biecky will need to train hard to improve his rank- ing this season, Other medal winners at the Nov, 17 meet in- _¢lude Fernando Polanco, who clocked in with two bronze medals and five personal best swims, Judy Stevenson with one second place finish and three personal best swims and Keely Wallace who won two bronze medals and recorded three best ever swims, Petra Robinson, 13, swam two personal best races and placed 48th in the national rankings last year, TERRACE MINOR HOCKEY: Peewees chart double wins at Tamitik arena By TYLER NOBLE BOTH THE Peewee Reps and the Peewee Winter Games Teams were winners in Kitimat on November 19- 21, The Peewee division features minor hockey players aged 12 and 13. _ The Peewee Rep team consists of the best 17 players - in the Peewee division, The remaining players play in the Peewee House lea- gue, a five-team league of 14 or 15 players on each team, The Peewee Reps travelled to Kilimat on the week- end to play a pair of games against Kitimat at the Tami- lik Arena. In the Friday night game, Terrace defeated the Kiti- mat Reps 5-3, However, things went from bad to worse Saturday morning for Kitimat. In the 10 a.m. game the Terrace Peewce Reps beat the Kitimat Reps 11-3 ina lop-sided match. There was a total collapse in offence for Kitimat, as solid Terrace defence kept Kitimat out of the game from the start. Also playing in Kitimat on clection day was the Pee- wee Winter Games team. This team is a selected group of 17 house players in the Peewee division. The players on this team play together on the North- ern B.C. Winter Games team (also known as the "B- team"), as well as on their respective teams in Terrace’s house league. The Peewee Winter Games team played the Kitimat Winter Games team on Saturday at noon, right after the Rep game. The Terrace B-team squared-off against Kitimat in their first game ever this season. Solid goaltending from Kevin Sarsiat and Nathan Park for Terrace kept the Kitimat B-team out of the game, while Jordan Wall's five goals led the team to an impressive 12-1 victory over Kitimat. Although the game did not count towards any stand- ings, it was a good start for Terrace, as they will travel to Hazelton for zone play-downs on November 27 and 28. The zones will be a two-day, double knock-out tour- nament to determine which team will represent our zone in the Northern B.C. Winter Games, held this year in Fort Si. John from February 3 to 6. Our zone includes teams from Terrace, Kitimat, and Hazelton, wink of In house league action, there were three games played on the weekend. On Saturday, Ken's Trucking defeated Bradford and Two games were played on Sunday, the first saw Skeena Sawmills double Farwest Fuels 6-3 and the sec- ond game saw Bradford and Sons beat Lakelse Logging, a a | Men’s Futsal Already two weeks into the season, futsal games are intense and Physical. Super BM picked up where they left off winning their first two games. They beat the Intermationals 8-3 and the Blazers 4-3. League standings to Nov, 24 GF GA GP WL T PTS Super BM 2 5 220900 6 Jock's Pipers FC 8 5 2110 3 Cavalhelro's Blazers 7 § 2 110 3 Internationals 10 10 2110 38 Canadian Tire 5 7F 2110 93 Kitwanga Falcons 6 8 21190 3 Northern Knight 4° 12° 2.02°0 4a