Modifying Fins?

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.

 

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.

 

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