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Lifelong friends and avid outdoorsmen from the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Brian Terry and Ian McNair established High ‘N Dry in 2015. Often left cold and wet after working or hunting, they sought to find a solution for ineffective apparel. Through extensive research, they created innovative protective gear for the aquaculture industry and avid waterfowler: a long lasting chest wader and accompanying jacket that can endure nature’s harshest conditions. Durable, dry, and warm, High ’N Dry waders and jackets ensure your comfort while in and around the water for work or recreation.
Brian grew up on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, immersed in the seaside lifestyle. In his youth, he assisted with the family seafood business, gaining industry knowledge and a valuable work ethic. While most kids were sleeping in on a Saturday morning after a long school week, he was up and out the door heading out on the water. By his early teens he was old enough to run a boat, and be sent out on the water to work the shellfish beds. While in high school, Brian progressed to the position of Bay Manager, expanding his familiarity with the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The warm months were mostly a time of joy, unlike the cold blowing days of winter that many times created salt water ice. Those days constantly had him question his sanity while hoping to stay warm and dry long enough to get the work done and return to the comforts of home.
His hard work and leadership continued into college where he earned a BA in Business Administration from Radford University. After graduating, he landed a great job in the Fire and Rescue industry as a Regional Sales Manager. Almost a decade passed before he decided to return home, to be part of the fourth generation in the family aquaculture business. He grew as a person and matured as an adult, while gaining valuable knowledge through a successful career outside the aquaculture industry.
Getting settled back on the Eastern Shore of Virginia was a difficult task with a full time occupation, a wife, and children. The good ole days of hanging out with friends, hunting, and fishing were now scarce. He and his family adapted as their business began to thrive. Over the years, personally working side by side with his crew in all conditions, he helped improve and create new ways of planting, growing, and harvesting clams and oysters.
In running a business you always look for opportunities to make things better. In studying the employees, he realized that the workers were far more productive being warm and dry than they ever were being cold and wet. He then started critiquing the gear and the manufacturers that produced it. Over the course of a year or two, he realized that there wasn’t a wader manufacturer that produced a quality wader that could withstand commercial use. So with that thought in mind, he set out to build the best jacket and wader possible to withstand all the challenging conditions.
Not long into his venture, he understood that the challenges involved with developing a full blown business opportunity from merely an idea was a daunting task, and one that would be better achieved with two heads rather than one. So after careful consideration, he reached out to his lifelong friend, decoy carver, and duck hunter, Ian McNair to join him and High ‘N Dry was born.
The first tool I learned to use after a hammer was a spokeshave. I was about 3 years old, and it was given to me by my father, who is an artist and decoy carver. I spent most of my early youth catching crabs, shrimp and minnows off our dock on the Chesapeake Bay, or in my father’s shop. Around the age of 15 I had the urge to do as my father and grandfathers had done before me – go duck hunting. To do this I needed decoys, and there seemed but one way to get them, make them. With some cork blocks and help from my father, we made a few black ducks and pieced together a small rig to hunt on Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. On our first hunt, a small group of mallards came by and circled the decoys, my decoys. I raised my 20-gauge humpback and in my excitement fired directly behind a beautiful mallard drake. Disappointing, yes, but a moment that I can still see clearly to this day, and I was hooked; line and sinker. For Christmas that year, I got exactly what I wanted but couldn’t make at that time, a pair of waders. They rubbed my calf raw from a bad glue joint, and leaked by the second season. Not perfect, but I was perfectly content to be able to hunt ducks, despite the lack of comfort or amount of Aquaseal.
I spent the majority of my 20’s traveling the world and working in places like New Zealand, St. Thomas and Alaska. I worked mostly to create opportunities to spend my free time fishing, hunting, and hiking in exotic locations. Into my thirties my wife and I decided to settle back in my native Virginia and to follow my lifelong passion for carving decoys. Soon after this move back, one of my lifetime friends, and best duck hunting buddy, Brian, came to me with a proposal. Let’s make a better wader for my family’s aquaculture business, and we can use them for hunting as well. I was intrigued, and we began our journey into making the best wader possible for hard working people who wear them 300 days a year. Customers with high expectations, Brian in waders every day, and a lifetime of wearing waders myself allowed for a quick learning curve and the capability to design a fully field tested rugged wader that we believe in. We know firsthand how important it is to be dry, mobile and comfortable when working or playing in our backyard or around the world. I still get to make my own decoys and hunt over them, now I get to do it in waders that we made, dry and comfortable.