True confessions of a flip flop aficionado: I love flip flops. I’m a fanatic. I’ve loved flip flops since I had the first pair as a child in a mountain town where they were totally inappropriate and rubbed blisters between my toes. I have dozens of pair and still cannot resist new styles, brand names or dollar sales. None are too elaborate to be considered or too cheap to be useful. I wear them every day. Well, at least at home or to the beach, I wear them all the time. I do have real shoes to wear to business meetings, but only if I must. I understand it’s poor etiquette to wear flip flops to the White House or to a formal evening affair, neither of which fits too often with a beach lifestyle anyway.
One year I gave my friends flip flips for holiday gifts, knowing they love beach visits. They surprised me with flip flops too! I realized they had been looking at my feet often to know what I love!
Now, having rolled out the true confession, I implore you to wear flip flips. The point is: Take care of your feet at the beach.
A foot specialist does not recommend flip flops. They don’t provide proper support, and they sometimes require an awkward stepping motion. They might not bend at the correct angle. Still, any semblance of a shoe is protection for the foot. They are better than a barefoot walk to the beach from anywhere.
Pavement is sometimes steaming hot; parking lots or driveways may be gravel; sand at some beaches in the middle of high season is often too hot to touch. Broken glass is an unfortunate find on sidewalks, in parking lots or on the beach. Sea shells wash up on the beach and often have sharp edges. Sand spurs are a type of tiny prickly weed sprinkled in the sand along some of our coast. We wouldn’t walk on any of this at home without shoes. Why would we walk on it at the beach? It’s painful and damages our feet.
Your feet take you to the beach, and all too often I lament your lack of flip flops. Please think of the comfort and safety of your feet, and wear flip flops, sandals or shoes to the beach. Then it’s easy to kick them off on the sand when you reach a destination before the water. Anything is better than nothing. Find them for a dollar at almost any store and trash them if you can’t continue to love them at home. You don’t have to be a fan of the footwear to love your own feet.
I’m not a foot specialist, or even a fashion cop, but I know a thing or two about the beach and about a flip flop or two. Life’s a Beach! Live it with good feet!
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