About 10 years ago a friend and I purchased a raft for fishing in Canada. We left it at the B&B where we stayed each fall to spend a couple weeks fishing. The raft was a great help in fishing and learning the rivers; we fished for steelhead to greater or lesser success (it is steelhead fishing after all). However, over the years, weighed down with boots, waders, rods, etc., that first step into or out of the raft made entering or exiting the raft very difficult. And since it is illegal to fish from a boat or a raft on the rivers in Canada where we fish, we spent our days wading rocky bottoms in various depths and currents and continually getting into, then out of, the raft to fish. It was exhausting.
After one day of increasing frustration I absentmindedly thought, “We need a step!”. That realization sat for a bit but then I started futzing around with the idea of making a step for a raft. Lots of attempts were discarded but eventually the final form was developed. I originally thought of the step as something just for my aging friend and myself, but during the process of developing and testing with friends and guides I recognized that it might be of value to other older people facing the difficulty of entering and exiting a framed raft.
But the difficulty getting into a raft from the bank or the river and then getting out again, is not just related to age. You could say it’s universal. It requires a good deal of balance and strength. An interim step provides a vital point to transfer body weight from one foot to the other. Placing a hand—or two—on the frame, I was able to easily put one foot on the step, pull the other off the bottom to inside the raft and onto the floor. The body weight transfer from outside to inside, using the step, was helped by the stabilizing effect of one or both hands holding onto the frame.
Also—and this was a huge revelation—when I first tried the step I immediately felt a sense of balance and security that was missing without the step. The step not only makes it easier to enter and exit a raft, it makes it safer and more secure.
So the RaftStep was born. I realized it was such a good idea, and such a necessary product, that I Patented it. RaftStep is made with first rate industrial materials— stainless steel plates and hardware— and fits all rafts with tubes with diameter of 1 7/8” and smaller.
To see instructions on altering RaftStep length and other information go to RaftStep.com.
Right now RaftStep is exclusively available at the Caddis Fly Angling shop in Eugene, Oregon. Purchase here: https://www.caddisflyshop.com/raft-step.html
