I Finally Figured Out All-Weather All-Surface Barefooting!

I finally figured out all-weather all-surface barefooting! I've posted many times with almost a scientific analysis about each of my barefoot experiences and different observations of the effects on the soles, but here is a definitive summary of my findings that are absolutely true for every time barefoot outside going forward.

First of all, this does not discuss cold temperatures below freezing into frostbite, and does not discuss burning the soles past the point of blisters up to 3rd degree burns. Both can cause permanent damage to the soles, not just challenge them to become tougher than before so they are more like shoes.

Cold: Soles that are not yet heat-trained remain dry and chill more. Soles that are heat trained actually sweat until they reach a warm enough temperature from being protected from the cold, then start to dry out and stay at that warm temperature unless walking on a near-freezing surface again.

Hot: I have much more experience with this due to frequent inland area barefooting on hot sidewalks and hotter asphalt in summer...

I have plenty experience with hot-walking. Soles burn almost instantly if not pre-heated when a hot surface is sufficiently quick-burning. Pre-heating involves a few times on the hottest heat and going off the heat or going to less heat. Pre-heated soles can tolerate the heat for a longer duration. As the burn threshold of the soles increases, longer distances can be walked on the heat, and longer times can be done standing on the heat. Slow than normal walking is best done until it is necessary to normal speed walk, fast walking or running should be avoided. Walking through shade is preferable to standing in shade unless the shade is too hot. Walking to a less but still plenty hot surface such as sidewalk is preferable to going to a grassy area to maintain enough heat to keep getting used to it. Painted lines and curbs are mostly useless... the lines that are very slightly raised still require a balance beam style of stepping for the shorter distance of the lines, and anything other than a white line or very light colored curb barely relieves any heat while requiring the same balance beam stepping. As a last resort, and to get used to extra hot surfaces before urgently needing to cool off the soles, hot-footing involving flicking the soles up in the air at the end of each step can still increase the distance more than just a few steps due to the air cooling off the soles until the next step.

Standing is very challenging to remain feet fully on the ground on particularly hot surfaces, so the best standing method for me when soles start burning too much is rolling on both soles at the same time. It distributes the same burning heat on both soles to get them both used to it the same, double trains the edges of the soles because rolling involves the edges twice, and so at some point when even walking starts to become excessively hot, and before choosing or not choosing to switch to hot-footing walking or cooling the soles sooner, it can be possible to walk on the edges of the soles to increase the stepping distance that much more. Overburning is best avoided from prolonged hot surface barefooting, but tolerating enough burning is more than normal part of the overall heat barefooting experience (or else stay off the heat except for very short distances during significantly hot summers). Burning almost to the point of overburning can still result in soles stinging for some time, feeling hot for a longer time (although no longer overnight for me), and pulse feeling can also be felt. Burned soles with calluses end up with calluses showing whiter through the dirt. Areas of the soles almost overburned can still be overburned even when wearing shoes such as flip flops, by overstriding with too long of a step size too fast because shoes are now being worn. Areas of the soles that overburned actually show through around the dirt with little to no surface dirt on the overburned parts.

I almost never get really dark and coated blackened soles unless the surface is the newer extra hot surface that, as it turns out, is just a layer of roofing style tar over whatever surface it is sealed over... so my soles usually end up lighter blackened with any calluses showing ever whiter through the dirt based on how much more they got burned and for how long.

Rough: Scuffs more than it pokes, but still scrapes away at the calluses with every step when ending up overstriding too fast, overstriding being taking the same step size as wearing shoes instead of adjusting for being barefoot. Too long of a distance overstriding, and at the very least the soles will feel burned similar to rug burns even for quite some time when the walking is done.. Continuing for even longer too fast after the soles get similar to rug burns can overburn the soles as much as walking one heat, except the overburning is not as deep into the soles as from walking on the heat.

Sharp: Uncomfortable to ouch! Pokes into the soles more as the gravel has sharper points. Generally requires slower walking and doing as best as possible not to walk too much on any one part of the soles.

Larger pebbles in sidewalk: Ouch! Presses into the soles just as much and sometimes more than sharp, but also ends up bruising the soles more tender based on how much longer the walk must be on that surface.

Wooden piers or wooden boardwalks: Always step and never slide the soles, or on unsealed wood it will definitely involve one or more splinters.

Wood splinter or glass sliver in soles: Try tweezers first. If it won't come out, use fingernail clippers, press down more above the wood or glass and clip on it without cutting it. If fingernail clippers won't work, do the same with toenail clippers.

Barefoot first aid: I carry a small kit including sewing needles or narrow straight pins for draining any blisters, tweezers and toenail clippers in case of wood or glass slivers, and a few band-aids in case a wound needs to be covered after the initial first aid on it.

Foot protection: Only men's rubber sole/rubber footbed/cloth strap flip flops when barefoot occurrences might occur at some point that is too hot and the nearest cooler spot is a longer than expected distance away. Flip flops on only for those problem sections, then flip flops off again until the next problem section. Carried either in a waistpack on outside the waistpack if it has bungee straps to hold them.

Businesses: I'm now going to start carrying the flip flops on the bungee straps of a waistpack, whether I walk or drive. I figure this will eliminate more of a chance of being asked to leave and get shoes because all I have to do is unstrap them and wear them. Those businesses that don't object won't care if I have them on or not. To prevent accusations of shoplifting, I even have etched into the flip flops footbeds so they have identifying marks showing they are mine.

I think that's more than good enough solving barefooting for me, with the main challenges being more distances at a faster speed (but not stride distance) on rough, faster and less delicate stepping on sharp, and increasing the overburn of the soles threshold until I can't realistically increase it anymore without pushing to 3rd degree burns.

Now, I don't consider any of this a foot obsession or foot fetish, but I do consider it a very detailed analysis of a progressive conditioning of the soles for all-weather and all-surfaces. As I have mentioned before: this isn't much different than dancing, fitness exercises, martial arts, or even distance running... there is always a degree of discomfort or even pain as part of the training process. Friction blisters on the soles even occur was a normal part of doing spins and slides in dancing or martial arts, or from shoes that do not fit perfectly when training for distance running even when wearing shoes. For barefooting, it's just exclusive to the soles for the less friction tolerant and less heat tolerant parts of the soles. That also depends on overstriding or not overstriding, the distance being walked, and the heat level, sole bruising, roughness, or sharpness of the surfaces... until the soles eventually get used to it or they have reached their absolute limit to avoid getting permanently damaged.

 

Moderators: Go ahead and lock this topic, but please don't delete it. This is a single topic compilation of what I have written in shorter or longer posts in reply to other topics in this forum, plus additional information not specifically posted in this forum. This topic should be useful to inform new barefooters what their conditioning experience will be, and to what degree they want to do it. This topic should also be useful to existing barefooters who want to increase their barefooting closer to or at the level of all-weather all-surface barefooting. This topic should be even more useful to both types of barefooters in locations other than just coastal areas close to or actually at the beaches.

 

Mate......Iv'e Been A Fulltime Barefooter For 9 1/4 Years, After Having Read All Your

Posts Here I Can Only Conclude, You Sir Are A "Total Basket Case", And Do Nothing

But Make Genuine Barefooters Look Bad.

It May Be Time To Take A Good Hard Look At Yourself.

Just My Thoughts.



Cheers Glen.

 

The main problem is you don't like that I wrote exactly about it, one of the few that made a concise writing of a barefoot experience, whether one day or several months eventually becoming several years.

If I'm a "basket case", then you are also de-facto calling the other barefooters that were in my schools and colleges basket cases. Both barefoot boys/men and barefoot girls/women were not so few in numbers as to be ignorable, and in fact the barefoot girls/women did longer times on sidewalks, rough streets, or blacktop, even when burning hot on their soles, than the barefoot boys/men.

Walking on sidewalks or crossing parking lots to go barefoot in stores. Going some of the day or sometimes most of the day to classes barefoot. Standing in line for food or drinks during an outdoor school event, sometimes with the line on hotter sidewalk or asphalt during spring months and closer to summer. Dealing with the soles burning by rolling on the soles or stomping up and down to deal with the heat. PE classes or dance classes outside barefoot, even on blacktop, even putting up with soles burning enough to grimace and wince while even saying something like "hot" until they got to some shade for relief, especially when training outside for contemporary dance done barefoot. Some actually able to stand still without even having to roll on their soles to get a drink from a water fountain that was close to sidewalk and blacktop, or wait in the same line at an event for food and drink. Some deliberately doing extended walking on asphalt bike lanes even when the sidewalk was right there. And so on... almost exclusive sidewalk, asphalt, and blacktop barefooting, some deliberately toughening the soles on rough and hot, most had thicker and redder (not pinker, redder from more frequent friction and even burning) soles without rougher calluses, but a few had them totally blackened by the end of the barefoot day. At most, maybe commented how impressed someone was with their tough feet, while others openly criticized them they were gross.

For some barefooters, only locations that specifically banned bare feet required them to wear shoes when they would otherwise have a barefoot day. Oh yeah, and barefoot driving was also occurring, not so common as it is now, thanks to Internet posts, but it was done in areas not just at the beaches.

Do you get it?

Those barefooters didn't need solidarity groups with Internet origins such as DSS, SBL, or Barefoot Is Legal. Didn't need to schedule events specifically around bare feet. Didn't need photos of their feet at all, although one year bare feet at school were so popular that a bare foot did get a yearbook photo, but no sole shot types of photos comparing dirty level or sole toughness. Didn't need to benchmark their barefoot lifestyle among the others. It was so simple: barefoot when they felt like it, however short or long, unless otherwise not practical for them, or they didn't want to that day, or else banned at a specific event or location.

If there are any "basket case" barefooters, it's the ones so focused on bare foot they have multiple forums about it!

I fully admit to my share of posts about bare feet, but they aren't the primary aspect of my life. When I do choose to go barefoot, it's a personal decision without trying to actively schedule a meetup or passively looking for a meetup to deliberately associate with other barefooters. When in doubt of a location and I observe it is okay to go barefoot when someone else does it first, I do take of my shoes but I don't go to find that barefooter for any sort of interaction. Sometimes I just don't care, I'll go there barefoot whether I am one of the first or one of the others. When I make an avatar of my bare feet, on a barefoot forum, then it's more for show in a fun way like other avatars, and has no intention of someone viewing the soles for other reasons that might even give them pleasure.

Do you get it now? As a "basket case" barefooter among others you de-facto consider as basket cases, you just got OWNED in this discussion!

 

Remember those days when people would wear shoes, or no shoes, and they didn't talk about it?
Irminsul remembers.

 

All I "get" is that I'm losing the will to live.....

 

What I get is that some of these multi-year barefooters live in moderate climate areas, and therefore do not have the realistic challenge of cold and heat, so their main challenge is the impact, shock, and sole acclimation to paved barefoot running (and they still get scuffs, bruises, and even blisters) that, IMHO, is damaging to the feet, ankles, and knees.

Yes, a few do cold-footing in freezing weather but that's more for show, and they fully admit they carry footwear. Same goes for heat except the soles can be trained, even with increasing burning and blistering of the soles, to do much longer distances on much hotter pavement, up until it's realistically impossible to increase without actually 3rd degree burns.

Those who live in United States inland or desert areas realistically have summer peak heat as the most difficult barefoot challenge.

Now, I've trained my soles so far that I could go a minute at a time in 102 degrees F/106 degrees heat index before either needing to briefly stand in shade or put on flip flops just enough until the most painful burning went away. I did that four times, so four minutes total even with short breaks, before I even started getting the pre-blister hotspots. Putting on flip flops and walking on them actually made blisters, but that will still additional heat by friction on blister point burned soles. Not unrealistic, and I *guarantee* I could cross an Arizona parking lot around the 110 degrees afternoon peak heat range! Sure, it might look odd to some using hot-footing: step (flick the sole in the air), step with the other sole (flick the sole in the air), repeat... but the fact is that is a realistic all surfaces barefoot scenario when insisting on not wearing shoes until it's so urgent to wear shoes those hot-spots are appearing in just seconds. Oh and by the way, I'm such an expert at heat that I've even mostly figured out the blister point: except for the most rapidly burning surface, the soles burn, then they tingle, then they really tingle like they are being electric shocked, then there is a sharp pinching feeling, then the larger white spots (not just hot spots) fill up.

Don't tell me that makes other regular barefooters look bad because for those who want to or have to deal with heat: really hot sidewalks, blistering hot asphalt, even the shade is burning hot... I can provide real barefoot experiences about when it's simply too hot to consider any barefooting vs. when they still extend their barefooting using hot-footing vs. when they will blister even when hot-footing vs. when they will blister without using hot-footing vs. when they will just get really burned soles and up to the point of hot spots without blistering vs. when barefooting is easier even if standing still burns. My area gets heat in the 100 degrees F range during peak summer and peak heat... and my soles have had more than enough experience with burning and blistering to offer realistic and unexaggerated advice for new barefooters and barefooters who might have moved and now have to deal with heat, and I do mean heat, even if they don't go out during afternoon peak heat hours because even non-peak hours are still more than hot enough.

SBL FAQ still recommends avoiding heat, and yet heat is a normal part of inland and especially desert areas in many parts of the US. I conclude that most of SBL is earlier morning or later evening barefooting, but in order to remain barefoot in heat, it still means going out any time of day to run any necessary errands, and that can mean close to or during afternoon peak heat if the errand simply cannot be done later in the evening. At some point they MUST wear minimal shoes, but if they INSIST on remaining barefoot until that limit then they MUST condition their soles to as close to heat extremes as possible without 3rd degree burns or even blisters too quickly, and even then they have to watch out for excessive flip-flop friction if they burned their soles to white hotspots.

So, tell me again how that makes barefooters look bad when they MUST deal with heat to their absolute limit when they insist on being a barefooter.

 

You talked me into it.

Please consider developing some other interests. It would be good for you.