It's a fallen arch, so I was thinking of wearing an arch support bandage under the fin. The thing is useless otherwise but maybe it will help this way. It's frustrating, because just as I'm getting to be pretty good at catching waves with the fins, my foot is bothering me--actually you get pain from the toes to the ankles with a fallen arch. Last year, I hurt my lower back and the fins aggravated that so I was arm paddling. Now that the back's better the foot's acting up. Sucks to get old and start falling apart. I did get some of those webbed paddling gloves, and I probably should just go back to arm paddling for a while to let the foot recover. The surf's gonna be tiny anyway.
Bummer Well, at least it will be relatively "flat" for ya....keep working on those arm muscles and rest your foot already for the next nice swell!! are U sure your fin is not too tight on the imposing foot? I had a similar issue until I ignored it and then subsequently had worn a 2cm by 2cm chunk off of my inner foot ...just a thought and an easy fix if so..........
Of course the fin's too tight! And the next size up is too loose. Isn't that the way it always goes with these fins? I can wear fin socks with the looser fitting fins, but they fill up with sand and soon become uncomfortable.
Geezzz...what worked for me (cause one foot is usually slightly larger than the other) was to carve out a smaller piece on the upper right side of the fin. Not only didi it slightly loosen the fin overall on my left foot (I was having cramping in the foot also) but it also stopped the rubbing on the pressure point. At least you are not playing around with the outer portion of the fin (i.e. the blade). Not sure if you've tried this yet??
I don't think that's the issue for me. I mean the Churchill fins are tight enough to give me a bit of a sore around the heel, but it's no big deal and my feet--the skin on my feet--has toughened up now. The pain I'm having is from a structural weakness with my flat feet. I went out this morning but the high tide shorebreak was so impossible that I couldn't really catch a wave without risking a broken neck, so the foot's getting a rest for a couple of days anyway.
Here's a picture of Mike Stewart at a Chilean bodyboarding competition. If you look closely, you can see that he really cut his Vipers down, halfway through the yellow dot. Interesting, I'd like to know why he cut them like that. http://picasaweb.google.com/ibamedia/AricaDay2/photo#5229650196641002370
