I take it the tail/barb didn't get you. Do the "stingray shuffle" and don't spend a lot of time wading out...or in. (Seems "in" and "out" are sometimes used interchangeably.) I landed on a large ray or skate last summer when hopping off my board on the way in (to get out of the water). Startled the heck out of me. Then I just felt lucky its tail hadn't gotten me. Certain times of the year or season may be worse - from a human perspective - than others. I assume that would be when it's warmer, breeding time, or there's a large food supply in the area. I need to become more familiar with their habits.
Them ****ers are nasty when you step on them, last summer one flew up on my board as I was walking into the surf and I screamed like a little girl
Thank Mother Ocean you didn't step on a skate! Sting rays have a barb on the end of their tail. Skates have 3 pronged sharp barbs in lines all over their entire body. Ask any fisherman about their first encounter with a skate. Everybody has gotten stabbed trying to handle them atleast once. There really is no proper way to handle them(that isn't harmful to the fish).
Shuffle. Would it be easier just to dance all the way in? Bottle of wine, some liqueur of the deer variety, and two nice glasses of Suisse absinthe later, don't hold the above line against me. So seriously....I just assume dance a bit if it keeps me from getting smashed in the calf by some nasty little demon of the sand.
Those things sketch me out. I'd much rather deal with coral reef & urchins than those mobile, buried-in-the-sand medieval little fukkers. (the break is always better at reef than beach anyways)
I don't understand WHY they don't sting people more often. Can someone tell me? My cousin stepped on one of them, ray or skate, I don't know, it scared the pee out of him. He's still so eager to get out now...
Knock on wood I've stepped on them a couple times and never gotten stung. My ocean-injuries (wrong thread but whatever): * Jellyfish stings a few times * Ankle injuries from fin-swimming (i.e. a wave grabs me and throws my body one direction and my fins/ankles the other direction) * Bruised ribs, bruised face from bodyboard impacts * Semi-shredded knees/legs/elbows (i.e. tons of blood but not that bad) from rocks covered with barnacles or razorclams * Stepping on broken glass in a parking lot when my ex-wife sent me to walk barefoot across a crowded beach parking lot to throw out some trash without any glasses / basically blind * Neck/back shoulder bruises from getting rolled/bouncing off the bottom
freaking sting hurts!!! stepped on one as i stepped off my board in the shallows in Hatteras. put foot in hot tube was all better
What to the prongs look like? How long? I once stepped on something pushing off the bottom to jump back on my board. I ended up with three long whiteish plastic looking barbs in my foot. They all broke off just below the skin surface. The longest one was about 3/4". It looked like someone stabbed my foot with a three pronged fork, and the prongs broke off in my foot. Freaking hurt like a mother chucker. I never knew what they were, but always wondered. I even saved them for a while, in an old film container (weird I know). Does this sound like the prongs on a skate?
Stingrays are beautiful beautiful creatures. Skate on the other hand are just ugly and alien looking. Just lookin at pictures of em scares me. http://www.cottagefishandchips.co.uk/images/Fish_SkateWings.jpg
I have stepped on them out west, but my immediate reaction is to basically collapse. Like, take all pressure off of the foot where I feel the slimy creature and fall back as the impacting foot lifts up. A few close calls and it probably looks ridiculous, but that is how I handle any sea creature that I step on, just flop over and simultaneously remove all weight from the foot in question.... Its not an exact science, but thus far, it has been a maneuver that has allowed me to avoid impending doom.... Knock on wood. Ohh, and shuffling your feet obviously.... But doing that round here this time of year, lets your feet and legs just drag over all the giant jellies, but I guess jelly stings are not nearly as bad.... In this murky water, I usually get my feet up out of the water as soon as I can in the spring time. No telling what you might "bump into"....
