Bye Bye Boa

[trout624]

I've had the BOA lacing system on my last 3 pair of boots - maybe 12 years or so of use. No problems. They seem to work as well as regular laces - but don't rot or sometimes require readjusting because of slippage. They tighten and release quickly.

I carry a BOA replacement lace kit in case a steel cable breaks or the ratchet mechanism ever fails. Duct tape would probably work as an emergency repair.

Korkers offers BOA systems on most of their boots. I see the Simms website now shows it on one boot model, but I don't know of anyone else offering it.

I second this. I bought Korkers Chrome with BOA about 12 years ago and realized how amazing the system is. That pair and a subsequent pair of Simms rivertek BOAs got me through 10+ years. All you have to do is carry the field kit. Super easy to replace. My Simms were on their last leg this past summer with the wires fraying but I continued to fish them knowing that they’d snap eventually unless The soles fell off first. When they snapped, I pulled out the new wire and rigged it up in 10 minutes streamside. Super easy.

I just got Orvis Pro Boa boots as my next pair. Not cheap, but hoping to get 5+ years out of them.

What I’ve found is that the BOA system generally will outlive the life of the boot, with the one exception noted above.

I’d also note that I do a lot of winter fishing, so dealing with frozen laces is a deal killer for me. Such a pain. BOA is amazing.

 

[GANGGREEN]

Not sure that it's necessarily relevant to wading boots, but I had Boas on a pair of LL Bean upland hunting boots and one of them malfunctioned and quit working. Bean's typically pretty good about replacing or fixing broken items and while I wasn't looking for a new pair of boots, I simply wanted them to fix the Boa or send me a new one. They advised that they don't/won't replace Boas, nor do they provide new ones even in the case of breakage. They gave me two options, to either contact the Boa company directly and repair the boot myself or to return the boots for a new pair (even though the old ones were still in pretty good condition. I chose the new pair since those were my only options, but honestly, I felt a bit guilty about it.