In article <47qun9$cr4@maureen.teleport.com>, forwejo@teleport.com says... >I have been using them for about a year and it has gotten worse this fall. >I have tried some soap stuff called "sink the stink" the guy at the dive >shop sold me, but to no avail. I am afraid my foot will get gangrene if >I keep sticking it into this thing. They are good booties, but my god, >the smell! Any suggestions (short of throwing them away). > >Gagging in OR

I use Woollight detergent to wash all my wet suit gear. It's not too harsh, smells OK, rinses pretty good, and doesn't destroy your suit. I've been using it for over a year now on the same suit, gloves and boots. And trust me...with the red tide we've had earlier this season in SF, the wet suit smell got pretty funky. I hand wash all suit components. For the boots: just drop a little Woollight into the boot, fill half way with water, then shake, squeeze and squish your way to a clean new you.

As corny as that sounded, it does work.

Kevin Date: Mon Apr 17, 2000 2:05pm Subject: Re: Re: Getting in shape for surfing: A Recap

I try to always do flip turns when swimming in a pool (when you approach the wall about 2-3 ft away, do a little somersault and then hit the wall with your legs compressed so you can push off for the next lap). Flip turns train you for duckdives so you don't lose your paddling momentum after you pop out the back, and help me to train aerobically for those long paddles outside... its usually approximately the same interval between waves as it is between pool lengths.

My swim workouts are usually about the same length as Fringnuts, 1200-2000 yards, with main sets of 2-3x250 fast or 2-3x500 easy, plus warm-ups, drills, 50-100 yards of alternate strokes between sets, and cooldowns.

There is a really good little book by Steve Tarpinian on improving your swimming, which has alot of information that is applicable to paddling and basically being confident in the water. If anybody is interested I can give you more info on it. Steve usually competes on the local triathlon circuit, last year he did the open water mile in the Mighty MOntauk Triathlon in less than 18 minutes! -KO

-- In kooks@egroups.com, Fringnut@a... wrote: I swim ( either mile or half mile) as > often as possible. At end of swim workout, I swim a length underwater, then > sprint a length - trying to simulate a wipeout and recovery. I do this > underwater thing two or three times. It really builds confidence knowing > that you can hold your breath for a long period of time while under duress. > Came in handy many times in the past!

From: pasque@isp.net (Gioni Pasquinelli)
Subject: Re: Surfing with contacts?

I wear contacts when I surf nowadays. I started off without wearing them and I didn't really mind it. I could still see the sets coming in and such but it was still a pain to not recognize other surfers and such as everyone around was so blurry!!! So I started wearing them and haven't stopped since. I have contacts that I take out everyday and am supposed to throw them out after about three months. I used to have ones that lasted longer but they were more expensive. So I got the shorter life ones, 6 pair of these for like $70. I do lose one every once in a while but not too often (Usually I have gotten more than the three month life out of them anyway)...Just need to keep your eyes closed anytime you go under the water (duck diving, wiping out and such.) But like yesterday, sometimes you need to open your eyes. A large closeout was looming on the horizon and despite my best paddling effort did not make it through. The lip threw and landed right on my back, almost knocking the wind out of me, I did a couple spins in the washing machine that followed and had no idea where I was. So I opened my eyes, looked for some light and swam. I popped up to the surface and couldn't see anything out of my right eye. Oh well, another one lost. I continued my session and popped another contact in when I got to the car. I always keep a spare contact in my glove box for just such occasions. So by all means tell your friend to give it a try. -- Gioni PS. I have heard that gas permeable lens will stay in even better but I have no experience with them.

From: lizd@deakin.edu.au
Newsgroups: alt.surfing
Subject: Re: Surfing with contacts?
Date: 2 Dec 1996

I have been surfing with contacts for many years without problems. I have ofcourse lost the odd lens but only under extreme circumstances. Your friend is unlikely to lose a lense as long as he/she remembers to close his eyes. By the way I use soft contact lenses which cover more of the eye than hard lenses & are therefore harder to lose.