Kwok Wah Lai

I’ve used the toe shoe things, but I’d put them in the same category as the water shoes, not bad but not great.
For me, crocs and thin biking socks work great when it’s warm. Crocs and neoprene socks work good in the shoulder season. The socks prevent the chafe, you can do some light hiking, and use them as camp shoes.
Your ultralight shoes made out of closed foam would be interesting to try!

Hi Arnold – interesting! I probably won’t offer something like this because people come in so many different shapes and sizes it would be a tremendous amount of work, but I think it would be reasonably easy to make a set of lightweight waders using your old ones as a pattern. I’d approach it by purchasing a meter or two of fabric in the weight you want to use and then lay your existing waders on top and kind of trace around them, front and back, adding a bit of an allowance so you have some extra material to seal together around the edges. You could then seal them together with a seam strip (like a packraft’s tubes). I’m not sure how to go about making the boot cover parts (specifically the soles), but doing it the way a leather moccasin is put together might work. You could use packraft floor fabric there, but I’m not sure how grippy that’d be on slippery rocks… maybe coat the bottom with Aquaseal and then sprinkle sand on it while it cures for good grip. Cheers!

I have a pair of toe shoe like shoes (different brand, I think Body Glove?) that I found on sale at Cabela’s a number of years ago. They work great for getting across the rocks/mud/sand in and out of my hard shell kayak. They have drain holes in the bottom with wire mesh so nothing big get in but they do get a little grit or light sand inside if the bottom under whatever water you are walking in has that. So;
Pluses;
Comfortable
relatively light weight
very secure (no laces but a velcro strap across the top and a little bungee around the ankle)
Good grip/traction
water drains out easily

Cons;
Do get a little bit of light grit in them sometimes
A little difficult to get off when wet
Not super cheap, but reasonable when found onsale.

The ones I have are an older version of these:
Men's 3T Barefoot Max Water Shoe in Black/Yellow

I have used Teva sandals over various dry suits while kayaking and whitewater canoeing for a couple decades. I was surprised to wander by REI the other day and discover they are now vastly lighter than my older ones.
The best dry suits were super light ones made by Kakotat, sold by Alpacka. They were fantastic two piece suits, the top served as rain gear too. But they weren’t “fashionable,” just easy to put on, easy to wear, long lasting flexible and light breathable fabric. Everything I wanted, but I kept struggling into my one piece until they were discontinued, alas.
The most comfortable dry suit bottoms I currently have, however, are simple stockingfoot waders. Which I use with a splash top. And yes, helmet, biggest life jacket, rescue gear, the works. Not exactly ultralight.
IMO, if you consider making your own drysuit, use 2-ply or 3-ply breathable fabric. (I’ve been thinking Ripstop by the Roll’s 1.4 oz 10D breathable ultralight ripstop, with breathable heat seal tape.) Rockywoods Fabrics offers a pattern for rain gear that might serve as a general guide, just extend the legs into simple over socks to fit inside shoes.
(My first dry suit was waterproof and it was sweat filled, damp and horrible. So, IMO, don’t use air tight waterproof TPU fabric. Yuck.)
NRS has a better watershoe than my decades old ones, I want to try for boating. But for hiking and packrafting, I think Matt is right to use an ultralight low hiking or trail running shoe, sized large enough to include gortex socks. It’s what my friend Roman Dial uses wandering the Brooks Range.
Bruce
Fairbanks

I think it would be pretty easy to add a water-filled keel, but whether the tracking would improve so much that it outweighed the increased drag, I’m not sure.

It’s a leather iron – more information here: https://www.diypackraft.com/construction/tools/

I have the idea of setting a timer as I weld a seam to make sure I don’t rush and produce a bad weld. I plan to do an experiment to calibrate my iron. Do you have any estimates of weld rate? For example, about how much time should it take for 12 inches of seam? I assume it is iron specific; however, I suspect most builders are using the iron you suggest.

Is there some benefit to replacing the plug as opposed to using an adaptor?