I would like to obtain a hand held VHF radio, mostly for emergency situations but also for talking to others on the water.
I was at Boaters World yesterday, although the guy was not all that helpfull, they have the better prices. The question is, are the qualities about the same on different name brands. The biggest differences that I saw were that some were submersible while others were only water resistant, I guess I would go with submersibles.
The brands that I remember seeing were Uniden, Garmin, Raython, and one other I can't recall(off brand).
Any advice would be great, Thanks.

NEN

NEN - The guy across the hall from me just did an evaluation of these to get one for a kayaking trip. He came up with the Unicom and Standard as best, with the highest level of performance on the "wet" test going to the Standard. I think they both run around $190.

I just did some research on this exact topic. Although I'm a few months from buying I will be getting the Standard HX350S. I've borrowed a friend's ICOM, which works fine, but its nice have 2 knobs on top (a separate one for squelch) especially if the hands are cold or in gloves when using. Check this link out for more info.

http://www.powerboat-reports.com/sample/vhf.html

NEN, If your looking for a good handheld vhf I would recommend Icom first, followed closely by Standard, everything else is a distant third.
Both the Icom and Standard make submersible units but Standard has a couple flaws that can potentially let water in, in my book that doesn't truely make them submersible.
Other things to look for are what type of batteries they use, most come with rechargeable ni-cad, some offer the option of alkaine as a back-up, and the top-end units come with Lithium ion batteries that do not need to be fully drained before re-charging.
I would also recommend staying away from Uniden, and, as much as I love there fishfinders and gps units Garmins vhf don't compare to the Icom or Standards.

I bought a standard four or five years ago with a charger and extra battery and love it, I have not even used my second battery ever and usually have my radio on all day. charges easy over nite!!