Oh the agony of booties and straps. Thursdays windsurf session brought this memory back. With kiting, booties and straps are comfortable. But windsurfing, oh boy does it stink. The load on the straps windsurfing is nothing like kiting. Imagine a supermodel in high heels with pointed toes, then you'll get an idea of what it feels like. The sail load drives your toes into the booties with high force. TOE JAM!
Vibram Five Finger booites prevent the dreaded strap toe jam. The catch is, you have to widen your screw spacing big time. The Vibram bootie is very wide at the front. It spreads your toes, so the front of your foot is very wide.
8 comments:
How do the 5fingers feel in the strap? Any less "sticky" than regular booties?
for wave sailing you want your feet to go further in than you have on your pics.Keep the spacing of the straps tight but have it loop high over your feet this way you slide your feet in and then step down and wedge your feet in between the attachment points :)
Pete
Pete I'm setup for flat water in these photos.
For waves, I offset my rear strap so my foot is over center and slalom setup when jumping going out. I've always done waves that way. I never wave sailed with a strap on center. Too much of a compromise in my opinion
The 5 fingers are sticky in the straps.
pretty good shoes... when i first read about them here
http://barefootrunningshoes.org/vibram-fivefingers/
I thought they would make good water shoes, how do you like em?
I think they are the best water shoes I've used. They are as close to that barefoot feeling as I've felt with booties. Although they are nothing I would want to wear on land.
How cold can you go with those for surfing (water temp) - do they have as much insulation as regular surf booties?
The neoprene is about 2mm. It's not cold enough here to tell how it will be in Jan.
I'm sure normal booties would be warmer. Mittens beat gloves. Booties have to beat 5 toe shoes.
For NC weather they will probably be fine.
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