AlderCreek wrote: > > Right ON Ralph! I couldn't help thinking what a bunch of whimpie piggies some paddlers have. > > I generally wear Teva Alps or Chaco Z-1's from mid March to early November. Exclusively. No other shoes. Land or sea. Been doing it for years and years. Hardly a stub, seldom a bruise, a *little* blood now and then but hey I got great tan lines *and* you can show off your toe nail polish! > > BTW, you wouldn't believe how many sea kayak clients will paint their toes if given the op! > > Steve Scherrer I failed to mention one "injury" that I did get while wearing sandals. My wife and I were paddling on the Hudson River about 100 miles north of New York City. We stopped in the town park of Coxsackie (great name!) to wait for the currents to turn from flood to ebb (they can run 2.5 knots even that far from the ocean). As I walked across the lawn, a bee, in an unintentional but perfectly timed flight pattern, flew into my sandal at that precise moment when the big toe was raised. As I completed the step and stepped on him with my big toe, he retailated and stung me. I almost fell off my feet. I looked down to see this dazed bee stumble out from under my foot. The pain was incredible. I did several things: 1. First, since wearing sandals brings out the peacefulness in one, the St. Francis of Assisi in all of us, I did not take out revenge on the poor dazed bee but let it live. St. Frank lives in all sandal wearers. 2. Next, I limped immediately over to the river bank and stepped into the cold water to relieve swelling and pain. I stood there for 10 minutes and then got out, found some anti-histamines in my survival kit, and was no worse for it all...no lingering swelling. Lingering though in the back of my mind were all the paddling horror stories about the dangers of wearing sandals. Clearly, since I am a proponent of safe sandaling, I surpressed the thought until now. My tale now, alas, will just add fuel to the anti-sandal crowd. I must point out something here. The raised big toe is pretty much SOP for sandals but not the Chaco's. Somehow in the process of making them, they get the front part of the sandal to curl upwards quite noticeably, so much so that it is a brand recognition sign even if you don't see the label or they come out with a new model. That molded upward curl of the footbed at the toe area would probably prevent such a freakish bee sting accident (I was in pre-Teva Alps at the time). So if you are worried about stings from angry stepped on bees, wear Chacos. :-) ralph diaz -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024 Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com "Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag." ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Feb 16 2000 - 06:13:43 PST
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