The concept of surfers wearing shoes may initially strike one as unusual. After all, who would venture into the ocean wearing shoes? Surprisingly, there are specialized shoes designed for surfing, but these “surf shoes” differ significantly from typical running sneakers.
Surf shoes, often referred to as aqua booties, are typically crafted from materials similar to wetsuits. They serve primarily to provide warmth more than protection. However, there are situations where surfers wear these specialized shoes for protection against sharp rocks, coral, and shells when entering the water.
Do Surfers Wear Shoes While Surfing?
As mentioned earlier, while not a common practice, surfers do wear shoes when surfing. These shoes are best described as wetsuit socks, lacking laces and often featuring soft soles. There are several reasons why a surfer might opt to wear shoes in the water:
- Warmth In cold waters, surfers don wetsuits to preserve body heat. As ocean temperatures drop, exposed areas of the skin, such as the head, hands, and feet, can make a surf session uncomfortably frigid. Wearing booties to keep your feet warm enables you to surf in colder waters and stay in the water for extended periods.
- Protection Surfing entails certain risks, which is why wearing a wetsuit is recommended. This protective gear can be extended to the feet through the use of surfing shoes. Particularly when surfing over reefs or rocky point breaks, your feet could get injured before you even paddle out to the breaking waves. Wearing booties is advisable when dealing with sharp coastlines or surfing over dry reefs where standing on the reef is likely.
- Enhanced Grip While less common, surfers sometimes use surfing shoes for added grip. In situations where surf wax is running low, well-gripped surf shoes can help you catch the waves of the day. Nonetheless, using surf wax is still recommended even when wearing surf shoes.
Advantages of Wearing Shoes While Surfing
- Surfing in Colder Water Attempting to surf in water colder than your wetsuit can handle can be extremely uncomfortable. As our bodies prioritize blood flow to vital organs when cold, our extremities, like hands and feet, tend to become colder. Surfing with frozen feet is painful and challenging. Wearing surf shoes keeps your feet warm, making it possible to surf comfortably in colder waters.
- Extended Surfing Time Heat dissipates 25 times faster in water than on land. Consequently, even in warm water, you can start feeling cold quickly, leading to a desire to leave the water and warm up. Booties can extend the time you can spend in the water, even when others find the temperature tolerable.
- Easier Access to Challenging Breaks Discovering a perfect surf break but needing to navigate a sharp rocky shoreline to reach it can be frustrating. Wearing surf shoes significantly improves safety and speed when crossing such terrain, providing more time to enjoy the surf.
- Safety on Shallow Breaks In the case of shallow breaks like dry reefs, where water depth is often minimal, you may find yourself needing to stand on the reef at times. Wearing booties safeguards your feet from sharp reef edges when there’s no other option.
- Protection From Marine Life Although not a top surfing danger, consideration should be given to sea life. In areas with a high risk of jellyfish, blue bottles, or sea lice, surf shoes can protect your feet from stings. While it’s not recommended to surf in waters teeming with these creatures, if you’ve assessed the risk and deemed it reasonably safe, wearing shoes, gloves, and a hood is a wise choice.
Drawbacks of Wearing Shoes While Surfing
While there are few downsides to wearing surf shoes since they are typically used in specific conditions, here are some potential setbacks:
- Overheating Wearing surf shoes for protection may cause overheating, especially on hot days in warmer waters. Similar to wearing a thick wetsuit, booties can lead to discomfort and, in extreme cases, heat-related issues like heat stroke. To regulate temperature, consider letting warm water out of the booties and allowing fresh water in, which can be useful for wetsuits on hot days as well.
- Reduced Connection to Your Board Wearing shoes while surfing can diminish the tactile connection between your feet and the surfboard. While some may find this advantageous because surfboard wax can irritate the feet, most people feel a disconnect, making it more challenging to balance on the board. This is particularly true for surfers who are accustomed to going barefoot, as they aren’t used to having a layer between their feet and the board.
- Decreased Balance To maintain balance, we rely on our toes for gripping the ground. Surfing shoes often have tight toe areas, reducing their dexterity. As a result, surfing with shoes on can make balancing more challenging. More experienced surfers may adapt to this, but newcomers might find balancing on a board with booties slightly trickier.
Next part we will disccuss about how to decided whether and which shoes should we need. Click HERE to continue.
