Surfers foot

[esonscar]

On very few occasions my feet shrivel up but don't peel or anything. Post some pics dude.

[Johno]

at last some one else with the same problem!

To stop all the chat on manky foot desses (afleats foot / trench foot) This is what i thought was up with me, my feet beeing in infected boots / thought i had foot root from surfing.

After many skin test i was told by the specialist that there was no fungle infection etc that it was a contact elergic reaction to somthing, funy how it doesnt affect the rest of my body just my work hardend palms and bottom of feet.

This problem has caused me lots of realy bad pain, and depresed me coz i couldn surf or hardly walk.

Any way for the past 2 months been wearing no boots and no gloves and problem sorted, (until it gets cold again)

So am prity positive there is something in the neaprean witch i am elergic to.

had a quick scan of the wool lined wety, has any one got more info on these or used them??? i am very intreasted to solve this horibul problem.

i'll try find some pitchers of my feet, be worned there shoking!

[kekerengu71]

Well - I found it's a 2 week heal after the last exposure to my RipCurl gloves - then the skin is still damaged for a while. Either it's a toxin that gets into the gloves or its a neoprene or neoprene manufacturing chemicals that remain in the rubber....

I found this:

"It is very possible for a person to become allergic to neoprene and experience a form of contact dermatitis. Scuba divers and surfers have been known to suffer from a rash caused by the neoprene used in some wetsuits, and wearers of elastic bandages and braces may discover signs of contact dermatitis wherever the neoprene remains in contact with their skin."

Also - after dealing with this xxxxx for 2 years now - I have found if you get a reaction - 1. wash your hands etc with Oatmeal Soap (oatmeal is a v good skin healer) as soon as you get out of the surf. 2. chuck on some Coal Tar gel or skin cream (Coal Tar really works BTW) 3. if you still have a reaction bandage all your digits up (this speeds recovery by quite a bit) 4. wear work gloves if you are in contact with dirt etc (as you now have damaged skin, you can get a reaction off virtually anything - paint, car oils, petrol, battery acid, dust etc etc) PS also make sure you bandage up and cracked heels or thumbs etc as they can be painful. STOP SURFING in cold water till you heal up. PS2 don't take oral steroids, you can have hair loss (side effect) wow you just got ageing!~!!!

[kekerengu71]

PS also don't listen to the guys who tell you it's athletes foot - early on I thought it was and got some of that medication - was like putting paint stripper on already damaged skin - I also had tests for everything including a virus called Human Foot and Mouth which is a possibilty - but tested negative for that (it's harmless and caught from babies or kids) - they chucked me on steroids, and nearly went bald... To cut a long story short, I am now going to try some other gloves - I have my eyes on some Titanium lined ones, but will try some O Neils first - I have one of their wetsuits and it gives me no problems. but all the RipCurl stuff has either nearly strangled me (titanium hooded vest) surfers foot (Booties and Gloves) - I suspect someone is using cheap manufacture in Asia of the Neoprene.... will tell you how it goes!

[Johno]

Nice one sounds like you have the same alergy as me, and after exposure it takes 2 to 4 weeks for my feet and hands to heal.

products i,v tryed -

Booties:-
First paire of booties bought £25 quid gul round toe had a small reaction nothing as bad as i get now. after bleaching them etc (coz i thought they were infected) they disolved.

Bought some Xcel 3 mm Infinity split toe - these made my feet realy realy bad, very bad sorse / rednes and my feet went realy itcy. scraped these coz my feet got cold so i thought i had chill blains!

Bought some Cskins split toe Wired 6.5 mm Flece lined booties thought i had cracked it no reaction but then after about 5 surfs wearing them got a reactin same as the Xcel

Gloves:-
First gloves some rip curl 3 finger mits 5 mm had a small reaction on parts of my hands. nothing server just didnt like the mits.

Got some Xcel 1.5 mm Gloves and have had bad reactions on my hands, not as bad as my feet but my skink goes red and peals.

I have found if i cover my hands and feet in vassaline it helps. seams that the neopren what they use the extra elastic type gives me the worst reaction. i have a Rip curl Classic, Cskins wired & Xcel Infinty full suits and dont get any reactions any were on my body.

Av stopped wearing gloves and booties now and even thow my feet and hands are cold its much better than putting up with the pain of pealing / sore feet.

When winter comes again was going to get a pair of round toe booties and wear a sock?

Keep me posted on any up dates, cheers

[kekerengu71]

I read somewhere that Titanium layer on some of the Neoprene can stop the reaction.... I am seriously wondering if the RipCurl was what set it off. Apparently its a white cell reaction to an allergin - once you react once, it will get worse on each succesive exposure. Also I found during the healing process you can get a reaction from dirty water - ie river outflows or esp road run off and the guys in Oahu told me they get all sorts of stuff when it rains. PS I also read that socks and wool have limited success - give it a go, but its the chemical xxxxx in there, that's doing the damage....

[kekerengu71]

PS2 - I also don't get any reaction from the ONeil 4/3 suit. The surf shop guy told me some people are getting reactions from the rubber neck on some suits and they are getting a peel there....

[Johno]

Have you tryed the Patagonia products chlorine-free merino wool lined stuf. sounds it could be the key?

[kekerengu71]

Can't say I have - I would prefer, some conventional rubber without the xxxxx in it.... or I am going to surf Summer, and Oahu... and take up Snow Boarding.

[kekerengu71]

Hey they actually look good - have you tried any of their products??

[kekerengu71]

This is for surf board manufacture - but you can see the acetones and hardeners are bad xxxxx - ie chemical peel agent that cosmetic surgeons use...

EPOXY SAFETY ISSUES:
Toxicity. Vapor from most epoxies is much lower than it's polyester counterparts.
The resins we produce (Resin Research Epoxies) are all high solids and have 1/50th
the vapor of polyester surfboard resins. In our shop (which is well ventilated) we
don't even wear masks. Epoxy is also NOT a carcinogen. That has been well proven
by OSHA and many others in industry. What epoxy is, is a skin sensitizer. This varies
greatly between different epoxy systems depending on different company’s
formulations. Most older epoxy hardeners are formulated with a chemical known as
TETA or another called DETA. These base hardeners are in the aliphatic amine
family, are very reactive, somewhat unstable, quite toxic and easily can cause
sensitization of the skin (or dermatitis). Most of these hardeners are also modified
with phenol and formaldehyde. Phenol is what dermatologist use for chemical skin
Page 3
peels and increases TETA and DETA's toxicity to the skin dramatically. Many of
these older hardeners are up to 50% phenol. Formaldehyde is also no picnic as it also
increases risk because of it's ability to act as a vehicle for the phenol and amines
through the skin and into the blood system. By the way, the reason these epoxy
hardeners are still used today is because they're CHEAP. DETA and TETA cost 1/5
what a modern diamine based hardener costs to produce. Anyone who has worked
with many of the West System epoxies are familiar with these low cost systems.
Modern epoxy hardeners are nothing like their 60's counterparts. As I mentioned
above, they are formulated with modern diamines and have vastly reduced
incidences of sensitization. They also have lower vapor, better color, better finish,
and lower exotherm. They contain NO phenol and NO formaldehyde. Our company
was one of the first in the US to formulate and market diamine based epoxy
hardeners 20 years ago, which gives us an edge in experience with these chemicals.
As superior as they are they still must be respected as skin sensitizers. The simple
way to eliminate problems related to dermatitis in the workplace is to reduce or
preferably eliminate contact with the skin. This means gloves. That's it. We wear
disposable vinyl gloves. Vinyl is preferable to rubber because rubber gloves are also
skin sensitizers. The other, even more harmful, ingredient is contaminated acetone.
Like formaldehyde above it is a vehicle for toxins into the bloodstream. Fortunately
epoxy can be cleaned up with soap and water. Not standard bar soap but with
products like Go-Jo and Fast Orange. These products are water based and don't act
as a vehicle the way VOC solvents do. In 20 years of producing epoxy surfboards we
have NEVER had one incidence of dermatitis in our shop. I have also NEVER seen a
case of dermatitis that didn't have something to do with the co-toxin acetone. Given
the aforementioned resin parameters and if shop practice adheres to the above
suggestions, epoxy resins are MUCH safer to use for producing surfboards than their
polyester counterparts.

[Johno]

No not tryed any of there products, they are a US based company am in the UK, have spoke with them but there booties & gloves are not made out of the wool lined neoprene.

[kekerengu71]

These guys also do Geoprene - which is the same as the Patagonia guys: - no wool liner tho.
http://www.matuse.com

[kekerengu71]

Re: WETSUIT RASH!!!!!!@@@###$$ [Re: welshy]
#1518440 - 01/14/09 08:27 PM

Geoprene is a solution
for draining your bank account
seriously comfy tho and never a rash


Re: WETSUIT RASH!!!!!!@@@###$$ [Re: welshy]
#1518441 - 01/14/09 08:29 PM

not for me. i have the matuse. great suit but terrible rash. not friction rash some type of allergy rash. i think it is the glue used with wetsuits.

[kekerengu71]

Also check this out for Thermocline?

http://www.andymcleod.com/neoprene_wetsuit_alergy.htm
http://www.fourthelement.com/gloves_5mm.php

[Johno]

looks like we could be geting some were at last

[Johno]

kekerengu71, have you ever had reactions from foot wear? wore a pair of Karimore sandales at the weekend and my feet wernt sore and red! not as bad as when i wear neoprene bootis and i havnt had a peel yet

[kekerengu71]

Yes - I got a reaction from some cheap knock off Tiva style sandals - but I got real Tivas with leather in sole and my feet were fine. Also I get a reaction with my Rip Curl split toe boots.

The big news I've found is bandage up ur hands or feet at night - the docs told me skin heals at night - so you just use normal plasters and cover the damaged areas. It makes a big difference to healing time.

[esonscar]

My feet shriveled up the other day when I soaked for a bit in some water in the house !

It was the same as when I get it very occasionally when I surf. It’s an inconsistent and different scenario in my case – weird – can’t explain it.

Also I have surfed, kayaked and mountaineered all my life and have never, I repeat NEVER encountered anyone, nor anyone who knows anyone – male or female - who has ever reacted with either neoprene or Karrimore products (I used to use both all the time and had no problems either!). Nobody out of possibly thousands of people have had the reactions you describe !.

Strangeness abounds apparently.

[kekerengu71]

Update for you all - after a bit of a break having had some gear breakage, I went out about 2 months ago (winter here) immediately my hands went red and then peeled badly of the next couple of weeks. So I gave my Rip Curl 2m gloves away, as I could see they were reacting in a BIG way with my skin. Next time I went out I wore Dish Gloves (they work a treat actually if you ever leave your gloves at home) nowhere near the reaction, so I was pleased with that - but still a reaction that seemed to keep going for about a month from my last surf.

So I thought I would bite the bullet and test whether no surfing in my Oneil Suit might be the answer... well skin seems to be getting better in stages - it might just be that I get a Neoprene reaction - so no more winter surf for me.

I am going to go to the doctor to request a "Patch Test" to find out whether its an allergy.... will keep you posted.