After more than two years of work to get our booties manufactured, we’re excited to finally offer DragonSkin™ Achilles Heels for sale!
The Achilles Heels use a patent pending two-layered design to cover approximately 85% of the bootie area with a stingray-resistant material. The two-layered design keeps the booties flexible and easy to get on, allowing us to carefully balance coverage and user comfort. The booties were tested with Round Stingrays, which are common along the coasts of Southern California. If you’re concerned about stingray stings, you can purchase your own pair of Achilles Heels.
General Facts and Figures
While it is difficult to estimate the number of stingray stings each year, some researchers have estimated more than 10,000 stings occur in California alone during the summer months. Stings are frequently reported to lifeguard stations in Southern California throughout the summer.
Stingrays prefer warm, shallow, sandy bottomed beaches, and stings generally occur when humans accidentally step on or kick stingrays. When disturbed, the stingray flicks up its tail, flailing around its sharp stingray barb. When the barb pierces through the human’s skin, a sheath of skin which holds venom around the stingray’s barb is punctured, releasing the venom into the wound. The stingray barb has backwards facing teeth, making it difficult to remove from the wound – sometimes it needs to be removed by hand.
Shortly after getting stung you will start to feel pain around the wound. The pain varies from person to person, but it can be quite severe – in some extreme cases it’s been described as “knifelike” and “worse than childbirth”. It can be reduced by putting your foot into a bucket of hot water, but often lingers for a day or more.
Stingray stings are almost never fatal, but they can certainly ruin a fun day at the beach. In order to avoid stingray stings when at the beach, some people recommend the “Stingray Shuffle”, in which you drag your feet along the bottom of the beach as you walk. Still others recommend the “Stingray Stomp”, stomping with your feet as you move through the water. Unfortunately, there have not been extensive studies on either of these methods, so it is hard to know how effective they are.
Learn more on our blog article How to Avoid Getting Stung by Stingrays.
DragonSkin™ Achilles Heels booties have ~85% coverage with a stingray-resistant material, reducing the chance that a wearer will get stung by a stingray. Though they have been tested with real Round Stingrays, we can’t guarantee they will prevent all stingray strikes.
Please see our Product Liability Disclaimer for more information. We hope DragonSkin™ Achilles Heels give you a renewed sense of peace and comfort at the beach.