O Shoes
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Topic created by DougW on Mon May 23, 2011 at 5:07 pmI see a few people using o shoes. I've used studded footwear for fishing and they are great on wet rocks. Do the studded shoes help out on roots? It sure would be a confidence booster to move more quickly through those areas.
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Reply by j-man on Mon May 23, 2011 at 6:45 pmI personally find O shoes one of the best investments you can make. They are good when it is wet--and can prevent dangerous mishaps on wet logs--and can be good when it is really dry, also. The studs are very useful to prevent sliding on dry, loose leaves.
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Reply by WindWalker on Mon May 23, 2011 at 9:16 pmI was looking at these too, I have not tried them yet...
No doubt they would be an improvement on wet logs and roots, but how well do they perform on rocks? Like scrambling through a boulder field? I personally find it most enjoyable bouncing from rock to rock, and scrambling up the big cliff like boulders like at West Point and Gretna. My not be the fastest route, but lets face it, there's not much at stake to win or lose, so we may as well enjoy ourselves...
I've ridden many miles on motorcycles and mountainbikes with studded tires and they help greatly in snow/ice, wet roots and logs, no improvenment in deep mud, but it has been my experience that rubber makes much better traction on rocks. So am I on the right track with this thinking for spiked O Shoes?
If you check out the trails to the starts at these events and look at some of the rocks you can often see scratch marks on the rocks from the spikes.
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Reply by KathleenG on Mon May 23, 2011 at 10:34 pmI finally found O shoes my size this year (vendor at "Shades of Death") and LOVE them. I have metal, rather than rubber spikes. Can finally stick a landing when leaping muddy, steep stream banks, and clamber up steep, steep hills without using my fingernails :) They are also great for getting down steep, leaf-covered hills without slipping.
The spikes are indeed great for any sort of slippery conditions - except bare rock (some degree on finger-nail on chalkboard skidding). Rubber spikes might let you "stick" to rock a bit better. -
Reply by furlong47 on Mon May 23, 2011 at 10:36 pmIn addition to metal spikes, they do make o-shoes with just rubber studs.
I used trail running shoes for years before I finally got my first pair of o-shoes, and never looked back. I've been to some venues where getting through parts of the terrain would be much more difficult without my spikes. The only time I don't want them is on urban/campus type sprints that are almost all on pavement. There is a slight problem with slipping only in a particular situation - stepping on a wet log or rock in just the right way so that the arch of the foot is in contact but none of the spikes. I see some newer shoes addressing this by having spikes on the whole bottom and not just the front and heel. -
Reply by rgbortz on Wed May 25, 2011 at 9:03 amAll of the previous comments apply . I personnaly find the spikes a huge help in the boulder fields. An additional note, in particular for those "more mature" orienteers, there are High Top O shoes with braces available, which I rarely run without. For the last seven or eight years that I have been wearing these many times I have turned over my ankle but never have these hightops allowed the ankle to go far enough to do any damage.
One of the manufactureres of high tops is Jalas and they are available through a couple different O equipment vendors either at A-meets or online.
Another benefit of the high tops is never getting any of the annoying debris in your shoes while running, and protection of your ankles from any possibility of getting jabbed by sticks.
I find the new models quite comfortable.
