Booties and Fins Snorkeling

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Booties and Fins Snorkeling

by Ellen
(Sacramento, CA)

OK, I have a question I don't see addressed on your pages. I'm planning a Kauai/Maui trip in January and need to upgrade some equipment to bring with. I have some closed fins that work great and are lightweight for plane travel, but the rocky shores of some of Kauai's entries can tear up my feet. Can one wear booties WITH a closed fin??? Or will the fin not slip on due to too much rubber friction? Thanks folks.

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Booties and Fins Snorkeling

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Jul 27, 2010
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Options For Fins & Rocky Shores
by: Galen & Nicole

Hi Ellen. We just had to deal with this question ourselves for our recent Bonaire trip.

First, no, if your full foot closed fins fit your feet correctly you will not have room for a bootie.

So that leaves you two options. Get some booties and some new open foot fins to match, meaning they are sized big enough to fit correctly with the booties. We prefer not to do this because we don't really like open foot fins. They tend to be heavy and expensive, and don't fit in luggage as well.

So here is what we did in Bonaire that really worked pretty well. We walked into the water in flip flops (you could do this with booties), holding our fins. Once we had swam out to deeper water we took the flip flops off, and put on our fins.

What do we do with the flip flops? We each had a little webbing belt. Tied to this belt was a string about a foot long. At the end of this string was a small plastic carabiner. We pulled the carabiner through the flip flop straps and clipped it on the belt.

Doing this we got to use our existing fins that we like, and saved our feet. And it was a super cheap fix.

Some lessons we learned going this. Make sure you get flip flops that have some tread on the bottom, and some texture for your feet, so you don't slip off them when walking over rocks. It also helps if the flip flop straps are kind of snug. We like the ones made of neoprene for this. Also make sure that the carabiner closes, because Nicole lost a flip flop once this way.

We also learned doing this how hard it is to swim without fins. And changing into and out of your fins is pretty awkward, but you get used to it. So you can see this is not a perfect solution. But we still prefer it to open foot fins and booties.

Have Fun!

Aug 02, 2010
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Perfect
by: Anonymous

You guys are so helpful! This is a great fix for our problem. I did not want to buy expensive, heavy fins. We'll be snorkeling Kauai again and Maui for the first time in January, using many of your tips to guide us. A new breathing tube for me is tops on my list, after the so-sore jaw muscles using one that did not fit right. Keep up the great work on this informative, fun website!

Jun 04, 2011
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suggested flipflops instead of booties
by: Lady Em

Hey since you suggested flipflops with a good grip mind if you take some shots of them and tell me what kinda brand and where to get them? I am in HK.

Thanks!
I really dont want a pair of heavy open fins either as I dont dive.

Jun 04, 2011
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FlipFlop Types
by: Galen & Nicole

Hi. You know, our flipflops are really nothing special that I could direct you to. They are not even a name brand. I suggest just go shopping. Try to find a pair that is snug, meaning you feel like it will stay on your foot. And try to get some that have some grip on the foot bed and on the bottom side for traction.

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Booties and Fins Snorkeling

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Booties and Fins Snorkeling