Dangerous rowing shoes?
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Steve Schaffran
Dec 15, 2021, 7:10:32 PM12/15/21
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There seems to be a new trend in rowing shoes that is a (very) mixed blessing. On the good side they grip the foot very well, especially the heel. On the bad side, the heel grip is so strong the rower risks not being able to release after a capsize.
This happened recently with a sculler who had launched from the San Diego Rowing Club. He capsized and was not able to get his feet out of the shoes. A passing launch rescued him.
In this case, they were Bont "Project B" shoes, similar to the those that are now standard with all Fluidesign and Hudson shells. The extenuating circumstance was the heels had not been tied down.
My partner and I installed Bont shoes about six months ago in our Filippi double. While they feel great, we noticed the difficulty of extracting our feet from the very snug heels. As a precaution, we have tied down the heels as close to the footboard as we can make it. However, since we haven't given it an experimental run through I'm not at all sure I can easily get out of the shoes in the event of a capsize.
According to its website, Bont has been in the shoe business since 1975, starting with shoes for ice speed skaters and moving on with success to shoes for roller and inline skating, bicycling, and then for rowing relatively recently,
I'd guess that in skating and cycling a very tight heel is essential, but I wonder about rowing. If very snug heels were essential or even important to rowing performance we probably would have seen them long ago in the erging environment, where 2k times can determine a scholarship to college or a seat in one's national 8+.
In short, the trade off of very snug heels vs. enhanced risk of drowning is worth attention.
This happened recently with a sculler who had launched from the San Diego Rowing Club. He capsized and was not able to get his feet out of the shoes. A passing launch rescued him.
In this case, they were Bont "Project B" shoes, similar to the those that are now standard with all Fluidesign and Hudson shells. The extenuating circumstance was the heels had not been tied down.
My partner and I installed Bont shoes about six months ago in our Filippi double. While they feel great, we noticed the difficulty of extracting our feet from the very snug heels. As a precaution, we have tied down the heels as close to the footboard as we can make it. However, since we haven't given it an experimental run through I'm not at all sure I can easily get out of the shoes in the event of a capsize.
According to its website, Bont has been in the shoe business since 1975, starting with shoes for ice speed skaters and moving on with success to shoes for roller and inline skating, bicycling, and then for rowing relatively recently,
I'd guess that in skating and cycling a very tight heel is essential, but I wonder about rowing. If very snug heels were essential or even important to rowing performance we probably would have seen them long ago in the erging environment, where 2k times can determine a scholarship to college or a seat in one's national 8+.
In short, the trade off of very snug heels vs. enhanced risk of drowning is worth attention.
carl
Dec 17, 2021, 4:08:04 PM12/17/21
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- unless one takes a Faustian view of rowing safety.
Some rowers seem to have been subtly persuaded by promotional literature
to fetishise their feet, as if what little really happens there has much
if any impact on the real work done by the rest of the body. What
happened to rational thought, or have no enough rowers drowned with
their feet held in shoes in an upturned boat?
Carl
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Jonny
Dec 20, 2021, 5:22:20 PM12/20/21
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> In short, the trade off of very snug heels vs. enhanced risk of drowning is worth attention.
However - I was advised to go one size larger than you might otherwise pick if you were choosing shoes for walking/running/cycling. I tried on the same size as my Bont cycling shoes (which was lovely) and then bought one size larger.
This was on the advice of the local Bont agent.
What I appreciate from these newer generation shoes is not the snugness as such, but the stiffness of the shoe. It helps prevent me rolling around on the ball of my foot (or at the ankle) and I feel it makes my catches more stable as I'm rolling up to the front with less movement in the feet (and consequently less knee movement and boat wobble).
Getting the right size is not a failing of the shoe.
To be honest I think a much bigger issue is the method of closing and tightening the newer shoes. Quite a few have more straps or velcro (area) than is necessary and I'm not entirely sold on the idea that any of the BOA dial up systems are needed/safe (although the 'hidden' velcro release on the one brand I've seen up close was very neatly done).
Summary: A snug heel isn't as much of an issue as being strapped in too tightly.
chris...@gmail.com
Dec 21, 2021, 2:17:16 PM12/21/21
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On Monday, 20 December 2021 at 22:22:20 UTC, Jonny wrote:
> Summary: A snug heel isn't as much of an issue as being strapped in too tightly.
Neither is much of an issue compared with not having a heel restraint. "The extenuating circumstance was the heels had not been tied down."
> Summary: A snug heel isn't as much of an issue as being strapped in too tightly.
carl
Dec 23, 2021, 7:23:19 AM12/23/21
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chosen, having as it does these various meanings:
1. serving to reduce the severity of guilt or blameworthiness
2. providing an excuse which lessens the seriousness of something
3. partially excusing or justifying something
With a proper heel cord (2 strands of 4mm braided nylon cord) correctly
installed, & the shoes mounted on a suitably robust stretcher, no fancy,
touch-feely heel-box design in a shoe will prevent safe, passive heel
release. And there's absolutely no excuse for failing to install shoes
in this manner:
https://www.carldouglasrowing.com/imgs/heelrestraint676.jpg
Cheers-
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