I was recently in the market for a pair of wading boots and came across the American brand Korkers. These were a style of boot substantially different to the traditional wading boots in that they had removal soles.

All too often you hear of people wearing felt soled wading boots who come a cropper when hiking to or from their favourite stream. Even the manufacturers of felt soled boots recommend they not be used for hiking, and that includes the studded felt sole varieties.

This is where the Korkers come in. They have interchangeable soles allowing you to hike to a location using a hiking sole, then quickly change to a felt sole to wade. What's even better is that each pair of boots come with two sets of soles - a hiking sole and a felt sole. Also available are studded felt soles, carbide-tipped studded soles for rock and coral work, rubber Aquastealth soles and soft rubber soles for boat decks.

Before seeing the boots I was a little dubious about the sole attachment mechanism. Would it last? Would it stand up to twisting and bending? Will the soles eventually come loose?

Luckily I was able to inspect a pair at Alpine Angler in Cooma on a recent trip. And once I saw the boots I knew they were the ones for me.

Made of leather and cordura, the boots looked like they would last well. A rubber rand around the toe of the boot gave added protection. The soles were of particular interest. Each set of interchangeable soles had a tongue which slipped into a recess in the toe. All you did was wiggle the sole into the recess and there was no way it was going to come out.

In the centre of the sole, on each side were extensions of the sole backing which slipped into recessed in the boot. These were pushed over a heavy rubber lip in the boot sole.

At the heel of the sole is a velcro strap. Once the sole was located and the toe and in the middle the Velcro was looped through a buckle at the back of the boot and secured.

Removal and installation of the soles took about 30 seconds. It involved undoing the Velcro, pulling the centre of the sole away from the boot past the rubber lips, then sliding the sole out from the toe. So all in all, a maximum of one minute to change both boots from hiking to felt sole.

Out in the rough stuff the boots were nothing short of awesome. We spent 3 days hiking the Thredbo River. The river was up so we had to spend a lot of time scrambling up hill sides and over granite boulders. The boots stood up to the conditions without fault. There was no sign of sole movement or the sole releasing from the boot. Not only this, but they were comfortable and offered good ankle support. At the end of the trip I had no blisters and my feet felt fine.

I would recommend these boots to anyone. And at $239 a pair they are great value. Korkers Web Site is at www.korkers.com