Boots

Hello, Ben.

I've been using Ocean Pro round toe, soft sole boots for years, so I am very satisfied with them. Mine are 5mm thick with a side zipper. You might care to look for a 3mm thick boot, but I find mine work in Vic's 21 deg. C summer water temperature, without trouble. I find the zipper makes them easy to get on and off, compared to the no-zipper type.

You can do a search on Ocean Pro and you'll probably find them, or an equivalent (maybe Mirage TTZ?), in a dive shop near you. Price is around $50. Have previously tried Excel, NP, Rip Curl etc., but have found that the Ocean Pros and Mirages give as good a life as the more expensive brands.

I wear mine all year round and find that the boot sole life is about 12 - 15 months. A replacement sole can be made up using Selley's Sole Grip (ex Bunnings) which is a paste squeezed onto the sole. The Selleys is an anti-slip type and I found that the grip was too severe on the board (had trouble pulling my foot from the footstraps), so now, after applying the grip and allowing it to dry, I then use the scraper (in the packet with the grip) and just burnish the new grip to lessen the grip on the board. Eventually, the grip wears out, but you just apply another layer of Selleys.

Biggest problem with round toes is that your big toe nail will wear the neoprene at the big toe location if the toe nail touches. Simple solution is to cut/file the nail to prevent it happening.

Hope this helps.

I have the kevlar-soled Atan boots. Lasted less than a year for me before they started to peel and delaminate. Very good board feel and very cut-resistant but at the price I need more durability. I do still wear them in oyster country but not otherwise. I like split-toe designs a little better anyway and my cold-water boots are the XCel Celliant 3mil (I think I got them on sale at evo.com) which are just terrific. I bet the round-toe version is good too. I have O'Neill for warmer water - also good.

I've got the 6mm boot from Need Essentials - well priced and have worked well for the 6 months I've had them.

That said, they sometimes come of easy, sometimes a pain - depends how wrecked my muscles are I guess - the zipper idea mentioned above sounds niiiiice.

And when you're finished windsurfing you can use them to scrub the pots

Footwear on a windsurf board?
Note that all footwear is best avoided, unless as a necessary evil.

If you must disconnect your feet from the board then this is like riding a bicycle whilst wearing earphones - and a really dumb thing to do.

If your feet need protection for walking on the beach then that determines what sort of boots you wear - be cause some beaches have sharp stones.
If however you need to wear boots or shoes for warmth then the air temperature determines what boots you wear and how thick they are.

if however you need summer shoes for a bit of all round toe protection then get some 2mill wetsuit shoes - as made by wetsuit brands like Ion, Billabong, Quiksilver and O'Neil etc.
Some like Atan boots because the soles are thin but I find they squash my wide feet unpleasantly.

A good surf shop will let you try on several boots or shoes. Avoid the ones with thick soles.

the surfshop that sells those used to sell the swiss brand and reckons those are better.
the sole on the skinners seems to be made of recycled tyres !! (though website says swedish polymer !)

I've never worn boots, I tried a few times in the old days but they just moved around too much. I'm now sailing in some dodgy locations so tried again with Adrenalin split toe, there was the loss of feel plus hard to pull out of the strap for a smooth gybe. So I got some Xcel Infiniti 1mm boots and the feel great. Maybe especially great because I was coming off the Adrenalins. 4mm bigger straps compared with 8mm.