Locker room foot wear

NO Shoes On Deck! Whatever happened to this maxim from our past... remember the pools with "foot baths" you couldn't jump across? Nowadays, you have people wearing their "water shoes" from home all the way in to the bottom of your pool! Even so, I say bring on the viruses, bacteria and whatever else lives on the floor. If we hope to survive as a species, we have to be able to fight off these things! (As Al Bundy says... "the mighty cockroach"!) And with that said, I'm all about footwear outdoors... puncture wounds are a whole different story than surface bacteria! :2cents:

Embrace athlete's foot. Yeh, I've definitely had athlete's foot for as long as I can remember. Finally I've started battling it. Wearing flip flops at practice for past couple weeks and using Tinactin. Not sure this is a winnable war. At meets, I've started wearing sneakers on deck and only taking them off right before I need to swim.

Others NON swimmer people that walk in goose shi# on the way into the pool & walk right out of the hall onto the deck to watch lil jr. so they can save them in case they try to drown in 2 ft of water really get me angry!!:worms:

I used to sneer when I saw all the "prissy" women who wore their flip-flops in the locker room, on the pool deck, in the shower.... Wearing flip-flops all the time just seemed overly fussy to me, but somewhere along the line I became one of those women - and I don't know why or when. Now when I go to the Y and I don't have my flip-flops (maybe I took them out of my locker bec. I was going on vacation or something) I feel like I'm going to slip and fall on the super slippery floor...but the floor never used to be slippery... I feel so old.... and prissy :doh:

I used to sneer when I say all the "prissy" women who wore their flip-flops in the locker room, on the pool deck, in the shower.... Wearing flip-flops all the time just seemed overly fussy to me, but somewhere along the line I became one of those women - and I don't know why or when. Now when I go to the Y and I don't have my flip-flops (maybe I took them out of my locker bec. I was going on vacation or something) I feel like I'm going to slip and fall on the super slippery floor...but the floor never used to be slippery... I feel so old.... and prissy :doh: LOL. Me too. :)

Yeh, I've definitely had athlete's foot for as long as I can remember. Finally I've started battling it. Wearing flip flops at practice for past couple weeks and using Tinactin. Not sure this is a winnable war. At meets, I've started wearing sneakers on deck and only taking them off right before I need to swim. I had chronic athlete's foot throughout my swim career until I got a secondary MRSA (drug-resistant staph) infection through the cracks between my toes. It made me very sick for several weeks and I was out of the water for about a month. The IV antibiotics I was on for 2 weeks cost about $600/day (glad to have insurance!). It is quite possible the MRSA infection came from the pool facility. Since then, I have been very careful about taking care of my feet. I clean them twice a day making sure I rub off all dead skin and carefully dry between each toe. I use that hand-sanitizer gel after washing or swimming - it helps get moisture out. I wear sandals on the pool deck and in the lockerrooms and leave them poolside while I swim. They have better traction than my street shoes and are slides, not flip-flops so they don't twist around. My street shoes are selected for function more so than style; they have a wide toe box and breathable uppers. I never had much luck with fungicides either topical or systemic, nor with foot powder. Updated: yeah, I thought shower shoes were for wimps until I became one myself. :)

I always go barefoot. Have never had athlete's foot, but now I've probably jinxed myself!!

Despite the unfair knocks on chlorine in this other thread (U.S. Masters Swimming Discussion Forums - View Single Post - According to new study Chlorinated pools may lead to cancer), I believe in the healing and protective power of this magical chemical. When I walk out of a pool and into a locker room, I'm encased in a force field of clean that prevents all locker room beasties from attacking me. Never had athlete's foot while I had swimming as my primary athletic pursuit. Now, locker rooms not frequented primarily by swimmers should be avoided at all costs; those land sports folks are just downright dirty.

tell more! what venomous critter did you encounter? Agkistrodon contortrix contortrix, Southern copperhead. Just working in the yard wearing flip-flops I accidentally stepped on one. She got me 3 times. Why was a copperhead (nocturnal) in my backyard at 11:00 am during peak summer (Aug) moreover never seeing one until standing on it? bad luck! I wear shoes more often now

Never wear the same shoes two days in a row. I started following that maxim after contracting athlete's foot about 5 years ago, and have not had it since. Oh and if you do have athlete's foot.. forget everything I said before. Shoes are good, wear them in the locker room. Hiking boots are even better :D